


The Ties That Bind

by KittiePhanatic



Series: Never Tear Us Apart [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s01e06 The Day That Wasn't, Gen, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Luther is an idiot but he eventually redeems himself, Pansexual Klaus Hargreeves, Past Suicide Attempts, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sibling Bonding, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Suicidal Thoughts, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-24 05:23:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20353084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittiePhanatic/pseuds/KittiePhanatic
Summary: After escaping the Commission, Five drops in at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, rather than 8:15 a.m., thereby making "The Day That Wasn’t," "The Day That Was."An AU/fix-it in which the Hargreeves Siblings rally to help both Vanya and Klaus discover the extent of their powers, as well as address Klaus' painful and troubled life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings! I am new to ao3, so please bear with me.
> 
> Decided to do my take on what could have happened if Five hadn’t screwed up the timeline in 01x06. While this fic covers the storylines of most of the characters, my main emphasis depicts the relationship between Diego and Klaus (non-slash, although I do like the shipping fics I’ve read here; just not my thing to write myself).
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

In a flash of blue light, Five was dropped onto the counter in the living room. He looked around.  _ Where the hell is everyone?! _ It took two more seconds to realize that it was dark. He was supposed to show up on Wednesday, 8:15 a.m., during which time Luther said he would discuss the impending apocalypse with the family. 

Five had wanted Luther to tell them right after the meeting with Hazel and Cha-Cha the night before, but Luther had not seen Allison since the morning prior to that, and he had wanted to tell everyone at once; plus, Luther had figured that Diego needed a little time to process the loss of his friend and their mom, and Klaus was obviously too messed up from wherever and whenever he had been for ten months. And what the fuck was up with Klaus literally crashing their meeting with that goddamned ice cream truck in the first place?!

Five quickly tracked down Pogo. "What's the date and time?"

"The 27th, Master Five," Pogo said. He pulled his pocket watch out. "8:15 p.m."

"Shit!" Five realized he had just shaved off twelve hours from his two-to-three-day deadline.

"Master Five!" Pogo's eyes narrowed. 

"I don't have time for political correctness," Five argued. "Do you know if Luther had a family meeting this morning?"

Pogo nodded, but then dropped his gaze. "Yes, Master Five. Unfortunately your brother was unable to rally anyone to join him in the fight. And I'm afraid that he has since learned an inconvenient truth that he took rather poorly. Therefore, last I knew he left with Miss Allison, and I believe he might have gone with her to Los Angeles to be with her daughter."

" _ What?! _ "

"Your father never opened any of the research that Master Luther had sent from the moon," Pogo sighed. "Your brother discovered the unopened samples under a floorboard in your father's office earlier this afternoon."

Five rolled his eyes. "And let me guess: Number One decided to feel sorry for himself and have a meltdown. Where are Diego and Klaus?"

"Master Diego was with Grace a bit ago; her programming has been restored and she is now well again. I believe that your brother departed to avenge his fallen friend. I have seen nothing of Master Klaus since the meeting this morning."

Five chuckled snarkily. "Klaus is probably out there looking for every pill on the planet since no one wanted to stop the apocalypse. He's useless anyway."

"Master Five!" Pogo scolded him again.

"I don't have time to argue. I have the name of the guy responsible for the apocalypse." With that, Five zapped to the hallway and did a quick sweep of the bedrooms. Then he blinked to the back alley where the car was parked. As he got in he winced in pain at the shrapnel wound he had received at the Commission. He didn't know how long it would take for himself to become incapacitated. Hopefully he would at least find Diego in time, since he was Five's only hope. Five started the engine, knowing what he needed to do first.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the park, Diego stared at his mother in disbelief as she explained about Vanya's powers and how their father suppressed them with medication and made Allison rumor Vanya into believing that she was ordinary. "That sadistic bastard," Diego muttered.

Grace took Diego's hand into hers. "I'm sorry that we never told you the truth. Your father swore both Pogo and I into secrecy. But I believe that Vanya can be helped. Vanya was too young to know right from wrong, so she didn't realize that her power had killed the nannies who came before me."

Diego nodded. He could see that about Vanya. He then looked at his mother's wrist, stitched up from where he had shut her down two days before. "Mom, you're apologizing to me when-"

Grace smiled. "It's okay, Diego. But you need to go and find Vanya. And make sure you take Klaus with you."

Diego shook his head. "Klaus suddenly decided to get sober so he could conjure someone. He's going through gnarly withdrawals. He was a mess when I last saw him. I don't know how much of a help he’s gonna be to us or himself. I'm actually pretty mad at him right now."

Prior to miraculously discovering that his Android robot mother had her hardware restored (after Diego had previously made the difficult decision to shut her down himself due to her deterioration), Diego had spent the past hour helping his "younger" brother Klaus get sober by tying him up to a chair in the attic so to avoid temptation, in order to conjure someone he had just lost. Diego had managed to complete Klaus' request when Klaus had to take a piss; as Diego started the process again Klaus suddenly had second thoughts, so Diego had to resort to punching Klaus in the groin so that he could re-tie his then-violently temperamental brother. Klaus had attempted blackmailing Diego by offering to conjure his recently-fallen detective ex-girlfriend, Eudora Patch, and Diego had to leave before causing serious bodily harm. Klaus' overall behavior since returning from his accidental time-travel to the Vietnam War had been a complete one-eighty from the wide-eyed, eccentric and wisecracking flamboyant junkie as whom he had been known throughout their adult lives.

"Out of everyone, Klaus is actually best able to help Vanya," Grace encouraged him.

"Really?" Diego pondered the likely reasons for his mother’s advice. Quickly he drew a connection. "Because we always blew him off, too," he said guiltily, remembering that two days before, Klaus had been kidnapped and tortured by Hazel and Cha-Cha for around twenty-four hours before Diego got the message from Eudora that she had found him. When he had gotten to the motel room and found her dead and Klaus nowhere, Diego had assumed it was just a set-up until the next day, following Klaus' time-travel, when Klaus recognized Hazel as one of his attackers during Diego's stakeout.

"That's part of it," Grace said. "Klaus has actually had a very difficult life, but he will have to explain that for himself if he chooses."

Diego nodded. He knew more than enough of what went on in the streets to understand that Klaus never had it easy in their adult life, but he never knew what their "father" might have put Klaus through while growing up. Of course, Diego was pissed at Klaus that he brought up Patch's name during his temper-tantrum, but he also knew those were the withdrawals talking and Klaus would eventually come around, especially if he was successful in getting Dave. 

"Okay. Well, we need to get you home before Pogo finds out that you're gone."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Five zapped into the darkened police file room, making certain he was out of view of the very outdated video cameras (at least outdated in comparison to Commission technology). He quickly found Harold Jenkins' file and was about to leave when he heard footsteps and quickly ducked behind one of the file cabinets as two officers entered the room. He couldn’t teleport out as that would make noise and the cops would review the surveillance footage. Of course, if the cops found him, Five was screwed. Not only because a "kid" had broken in, but a kid with a shrapnel injury would definitely raise questions.

"Of all the people to turn on us, I never would've thought it would be Hargreeves," one of the cops said as Five heard a file drawer open.

"I understand, Rodriguez; I know all evidence points to him because of the fingerprints in the motel room and his contentious past with Patch, but I still don't believe he did it."

"Think whatever you want, Beaman," the first voice snarled as Five heard the file drawer slammed shut. "That asshole killed a cop, and he's gonna pay."

Five heard footsteps again as the two officers left the room. He quickly teleported back to the car. 

He didn't bother opening the file. He raced home as best as possible while obeying speed laws. Again, he would be screwed if he got pulled over. He hoped that Diego would be back home. Not only to warn him of his impending arrest; but again, Diego was Five's only hope.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego and Grace entered the foyer to face Pogo, glaring at Grace.

Grace guiltily nodded. "I had to tell him. This has gone on far enough. Vanya needs her siblings' help.  _ All _ of our help."

Before Pogo could respond, Five appeared. "Good! You’re here," Five said to Diego.

"Where the hell have you been?" Diego snapped.

"Long story; no time for that." Five thrust the police file in Diego's hands. "This is the guy responsible for the apocalypse."

"Harold Jenkins?" Diego stared at the file tab. "Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" Then he opened it and quickly sucked in a breath as he saw the picture. "Shit, this is Vanya's boyfriend." He quickly skimmed the police report which indicated that at thirteen years old Harold Jenkins was sentenced to twelve years in prison for killing his father.

"Holy shit," Five exclaimed. 

Diego gave a brief recap of Harold having accompanied Vanya when she interrupted the family meeting about the apocalypse that morning. Five then explained that he had tried telling Vanya about the apocalypse on his first night back but she didn't believe him anyway.

"In all fairness, you have been acting strange since you came back," Diego pointed out. Right after Five's initial return on the day of their adopted "father's" funeral, he had babbled something about quantum physics and pretty much distanced himself from everyone (with the exception of his mannequin, and what the hell was up with that, anyway) until…well, right now. "And, how do you know so much about this guy, anyway?"

Five sighed impatiently. "You know those lunatics in masks who attacked the house?"

Diego rolled his eyes in snark. "Oh, you mean the ones who attacked us and kidnapped our brother while you were getting drunk? I think so."

"Yeah, them," Five replied, annoyed. "They were sent by the Temps Commission to stop me from coming back and preventing the end of life on Earth."

"The Temps  _ what? _ "

Five sighed again. "My former employer. They monitor all of time and space to make sure that whatever is supposed to happen, happens. They believe the apocalypse is coming in three days. So I went to Commission headquarters and intercepted a message that was meant for said lunatics: 'Protect Harold Jenkins.' So he must be responsible for the apocalypse."

Diego stared dumbfounded at Five. "And how the hell did you get caught up with all of this shit in the first place?"

_ Boy, Luther did a superb job explaining things, _ Five thought to himself. "The condensed version is that after forty-five years in the apocalypse, I was recruited as a temporal assassin for said former employer, and as such I had to time-travel and kill various people in order to preserve the timeline. After five years of service I would have retired, but during one of my assignments I thought I had the necessary calculations in order to return here and hopefully get us all to stop the apocalypse from happening. Needless to say, I didn’t do things perfectly, but here I am. And now the Commission is after me for breaking my contract and trying to save the world."

Diego continued looking blankly at Five, trying to wrap his head around all of this information. 

"So, are we done here?" Five said impatiently. "We need to find this guy and kill him!"

"I'm in," Diego said abruptly, with newfound determination. "We already lost one person this week, and we almost lost another. I'm gonna go get Klaus."

"He's here?" Five then objected, "Of what good is he going to be?"

"Hey. That's  _ your _ brother who, by the way, was tortured by this Hazel and Cha-Cha while Luther and I were out looking for your drunk ass." Diego then looked at Mom. "Can you explain to Five what you told me while I go deal with Klaus? Probably going to take me a few minutes to get him down here, anyway.

"We don't have time for this!" Five exclaimed.

"Shut up," Diego snapped as he headed up the stairs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klaus had been lying on the floor, tied up in the chair, about fifteen minutes into his reunion with Dave when he heard a knock at the bottom of the stairs. "Please, not now," he whined. He looked into the eyes of his lover, not wanting to ever be separated from him again. 

"Klaus," Diego called from down the stairs. "I'm guessing you're with Dave. Have him hang tight for a couple of minutes. Vanya's in trouble and needs our help. We just found out her boyfriend is a convicted murderer, and according to Five is responsible for the shit that’s supposed to go down. There are other things I'll explain, but first I want to give you a minute to say goodbye to Dave. Then I'll come back to get you." 

It took a few seconds for this info to register to Klaus. He vaguely remembered seeing the couple when they had interrupted the family meeting and Vanya had blown up at everyone for not being included. Klaus had felt like shit as he had just started the withdrawal process so he could do the task which brought the very result standing before him. Now his sister was in trouble, and a family member was finally asking him to help.

Klaus looked longingly at Dave, whose smile grew even brighter as he nodded in approval. So Klaus shouted to his brother, "Okay. Thanks, Diego." He heard the door shut.

"We have a minute," Klaus reminded Dave. "You never told me how you found me in this timeline."

"You can thank your brother, Ben. He found me after overhearing your conversation here with Diego."

Klaus felt a twinge of guilt. He had vaguely seen Ben storm out and figured Ben was upset with Klaus for going to Diego for help instead of him. And, of course, he pissed off Diego, too. The only siblings who gave a shit about him. Diego talked of letting Patch and Mom down; Klaus had let two people down himself. "Is Ben mad at me?" Klaus asked Dave.

Dave shook his head. "He didn't seem to be. But it took me fifty years to find you, so I really didn't pay attention. But you should go be with your family. You always said they thought you were useless, but now they need your help. You and I will see each other again."

Klaus smiled through his tears. "I love you, Dave."

Dave smiled back. "I love you, too, Klaus." Then he vanished.

"Okay, Diego," he called out.

Diego came up the stairs and observed the scene. "Wow, you were really desperate to get loose, weren't you?"

Klaus nodded. "I'm glad I didn't."

After Diego untied Klaus, Klaus stood up to face his brother.

"Diego, I'm sor-"

Diego cut him off and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. "Forget it, bro. I'm glad it worked. 'Cause now I know you're never gonna try that shit with me again."

Klaus quickly pulled his brother into a bear hug. "Thanks, Diego."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While Klaus was in his room putting on his shoes and socks, Diego brought Klaus up to speed regarding Vanya's powers and what little he knew of Five's involvement with the Temps Commission. By the time Diego and Klaus made it down the stairs, Grace and Pogo had briefed Five about Vanya as well, and then they told Diego and Klaus of Luther and Allison's absence following Luther's own discovery.

"Shit, how much did Dad keep from us?!" Klaus exclaimed. 

"So, Luther's given up after all this time," Diego rolled his eyes. "We need his help. Do you have the number to Patrick's?" He asked Pogo.

"Indeed, I do," Pogo said. "I will make the call for you." He turned and walked away.

"Lemme see the file," Klaus grabbed it from Five and opened it. "Uh, guys? Did any of you notice his birthday?"

Diego peered over Klaus' shoulder and followed Klaus' finger to the date:  _ October 1, 1989 _ .

"Shit" Diego muttered. "You don't think he was part of those forty-three births, do you? And that he has superpowers, too?"

"If that's the case, then we need to be prepared," Five pointed out.

"Isn’t it a bit too coincidental that he’s hanging out with Vanya, in that case?" Klaus said.

"Your second shockingly correct observation of the day," Diego replied. "Sobriety is really looking good on you. Well, aside from you looking like shit at the moment."

"Thank you so much for the compliment, dear brother," Klaus smirked before doubling over. Diego touched Klaus' arm as he stood back up. "I’m good, I’m good."

"Guys!" Five exclaimed. "While we’re all here lollygagging, Jenkins is that much closer to causing the apocalypse!" Then he looked at Klaus, sweaty and trembling. "Are you sure you're up to this?"

"I don't know, but I'll do my best. I don't want to let you guys down." After Klaus said that, Diego gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.

Five was slightly shocked at Klaus' statement. Wherever he had gone for ten months seemed to change him for the better.

"Okay, let's roll," Diego ordered. "If he's not at the address here in town, his other address is at his grandmother's cabin in Jackpine Cove."

"We will want to take the back roads and stay off the main streets," Five warned Diego.

"Why? The faster we get there, the better."

Before Five could answer, Diego and Klaus saw blood gushing down Five's leg. "Five?" Klaus said weakly, as Five collapsed. "Shit!"

Diego knelt down and lifted Five's shirt, revealing a shrapnel wound. "Jesus, Five. Why didn't you say anything?" 

"You… have to keep… going. So… close," Five managed to spit out before he lost consciousness. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klaus helped Diego carry Five to the infirmary. As Diego watched Mom sew Five up, Klaus made attempts to contact Vanya. He reported back to Diego that she wasn't picking up at home and the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for classes. Diego nodded, staring distantly ahead at his mother.

"Hey," Klaus said gently. "Are you okay, bro?"

Diego nodded sadly. "It's still so surreal seeing her. I just hope she knows how sor-" Then to Klaus' confusion, he cut himself off. "We don't have time for this. Let's get going."

"Hold on." Klaus quickly grabbed the glass eye on the nightstand. 

"What is that for?" Diego stared at it.

"Five thinks that whoever owns this eye causes the apocalypse," Klaus said as the two headed down the stairs. "He had me pretend to be his dad so we could get the information about the eye's owner at that lab, and we found out that it hadn't even been manufactured yet."

Diego stopped Klaus in the foyer. "Wait, he told you about this, too?"

"Too?"

"He told Vanya first. She didn't believe him."

"I didn't take him seriously, either," Klaus admitted. "All he said was that within seven days someone would lose their eye and bring the end of life on earth as we knew it. I just wanted my twenty bucks from him so that I could go get high."  _ The irony now _ , Klaus thought to himself.

The two brothers headed out the front door, but within a few moments Klaus and Diego noticed a line of police cars slowly following them.

"What the hell?" Klaus exclaimed. "You don't think they're after us for stealing that ice cream truck, do you?"

Diego stared at the procession. "No. I think they're here for me. I guess that was what Five was trying to tell me. They probably think I killed Eudora."

" _ What? _ "

"'Cause I was a dumbass and took my gloves off in the motel room when I found her, and it's not exactly a secret in the police department that we had a heated relationship."

"Shit."

Diego quickly took off his knife harness and handed it to Klaus along with his gloves, the police file and car keys. "Klaus, you're gonna have to go."

"Damn it, I still feel like shit!" Klaus whined. He was sick to his stomach and sweating profusely. 

Diego placed his hands on his brother's shoulders. "We have no choice. Vanya needs you. Just, please be careful. I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this, but I'll do whatever I can to get back home as soon as possible. And hey. I'm proud of you." Diego hugged his brother, and then Klaus walked back up the steps and in through the front door. He left it open a crack as he sadly watched his brother get arrested for the murder of the detective who had saved Klaus' life.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the scene had cleared, Klaus shakily made it to the car and started the engine. It was then that Ben appeared in the passenger seat.

"Hey, bro," Klaus said with a wavering voice. 

Ben smiled back at Klaus as they drove away.

"Thanks for what you did," Klaus told his ghost brother. "I'm sorry if I've been a dick to you."

"I wasn't mad at you," Ben assured him. "I just felt bad for what you went through. But you hadn't told me where exactly you had fought until you told Diego, so that was how I found Dave. I knew that seeing him was the only way you'd stay sober."

"Well, maybe not today, then; but I know I have in the past. And I was a dick to Diego after all of the help he's given me the past couple of days, and now he's going to jail for the cop who saved me."

Ben stared at Klaus, who was an entirely different person from the crazed, wide-eyed man he observed at the motel just two days before. "Diego's not the only one who's proud of you."

"Thanks. I just hope I don't let you guys down anymore."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When they arrived at Jenkins' home, Klaus peeked through the front window and saw Jenkins lying on the floor dead with multiple sharp objects in his chest. Klaus tossed his cookies while Ben cased the house.

"No one else is here, but you need to put on Diego's gloves and come check out the attic," Ben told him.

They walked in on a display depicting numerous photos of all six Academy children with their eyes gouged out, as well as Academy figurines with their heads burnt off. "Holy shit!" Klaus exclaimed. "This was never about Vanya, but about us! What the fuck?!"

Ben thought of something. "Hey! Remember that kid who tried to talk to Dad when we came back from that one mission? The one who said his birthday was the same as ours and wanted Dad to help him discover his superpower?"

Klaus searched through the fog of memories and soon recalled the kid, tearfully pleading to Reggie that he could not go back home. Of course, Sir Reggie was his usual charming self. Klaus figured that Harold's dad probably beat the shit out of him, which led Harold to kill him; and thanks to Reggie treating him like shit, he had it out for the Academy, too. "We need to find Vanya."

As they headed back down the stairs Klaus said, "Wait." He pulled the glass eye out of his military shirt pocket and held it next to Harold's eyes, both of which were intact. "Same eye color and pupil size." He looked at Ben. "Maybe the apocalypse already got averted before Harold lost his eye?"

"Maybe," Ben agreed.

Klaus looked at the clock. It was now close to eleven p.m. and Klaus was still feeling sick and now exhausted. But he needed to find his sister and know that she was safe.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vanya stumbled into her apartment in a daze, clutching the red journal that she had found under Leonard's bed. She couldn't believe she killed him. He obviously deserved it, but she shouldn't have been able to do that.

Vanya flashed back to the horrific scene of Leonard trying to convince her that her family was against her, particularly Dad using Allison to rumor Vanya. She told herself this wasn't intentional and reminded Leonard that they were only four, too young to understand. After attempting to further convince Vanya that he was the only one who had ever truly accepted and embraced her, Leonard revealed that he had killed Helen Cho, the First Chair violinist in Vanya's chamber orchestra, so that Vanya would audition for that position; she indeed had just been awarded First Chair for the orchestra's upcoming concert the night before. Vanya then declared that Leonard was sick and she was leaving. Leonard repeatedly slapped the journal cover, screaming that she was weak, nothing and ordinary, soon triggering her powers. She remembered the satisfaction of watching Leonard repeatedly beg, "Please not me," as her powers lifted him from the ground and the tornado of knives and other sharp objects pierced his chest. As Vanya had slowly made it back to her apartment, however, she felt nothing but fear that she was able to do this.

Vanya rewound her phone messages as she tearfully sat down on the couch, and with hands shaking she put the journal on the coffee table. First message was from her neighbor, Mrs. Kowalski, once again looking for her cat, Mr. Puddles; the other was someone from the Icarus Theater reminding Vanya that her guests could pick up their complimentary concert tickets at the box office.

_ Shit _ .  _ I don't deserve to play at the concert _ . Vanya put her face in her hands and sobbed. She soon pulled her hands down and stared at the journal. She hadn't read much else besides the entries about her sedation and the fact that at four years old  _ she killed several nannies _ . She was dangerous. Dad locked her in a vault. He was afraid of her. Maybe she needed to be relocked.

There was a knock at her door. Vanya stopped her crying, hoping that Mrs. Kowalski would go away. After a moment, more rapid knocking. "Mr. Puddles isn't here," Vanya tried to say with a steady voice.

"Vanya?" That wasn't Mrs. Kowalski. That was  _ Klaus. _ What the hell was he doing here? Trying to apologize for this morning? Last thing she needed to deal with was his smartass commentary. She was afraid of what she might do to him if he pissed her off. "Go away, Klaus."

Klaus rapped on the door again. "Vanya, I could hear you crying. I know you're not okay, and I really need to talk to you."

"Please. Just go away."

And damn it, Klaus didn't go away; he opened the front door and barged in.

Vanya stood up to face him. "Just go. Please," she repeated.

Then Klaus eyed the journal on the coffee table. He slowly picked it up and stared at it.

Vanya narrowed her eyes at Klaus. "Did you know about this?"

"Not until about three hours ago; I promise. None of us did. Mom and Pogo just told us. I swear."

"How did Leonard get this, then?"

"Leonard?" Klaus asked, confused. "His name is actually Harold Jenkins."

Vanya stared blankly at her brother. In the split second she realized that was why Allison barely found any info on him. But that didn’t matter now. "How did he get it?" Vanya repeated. 

Klaus stared at the floor. "I might have tossed it in the dumpster out of a box I pawned a few days ago." He faced Vanya with pleading eyes. "Please, you have to believe me. Damn it, I really fucked up this week in so many ways." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm so sorry about all of this…my part in this, Harold or Leonard or whoever he was, and how we all treated you. You're our sister, and we want to help you."

Vanya felt a painful lump in her throat. She knew this was Klaus talking to her, but the words didn't match the usual sound of his voice, or his appearance.

Klaus held out his arms as tears spilled down his face. "Please, Vanya. I love you."

That was what broke her. She ran into her brother's arms, sobbing in his shirt as Klaus stroked her hair.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The two siblings talked through most of the night while sitting on Vanya's couch. Within the first few minutes after they sat down Vanya realized that it hadn't registered to her that Mom was actually alive. After a while Vanya got Klaus to admit that he was sober, and not long afterward she noticed the dog tags. That got Klaus to talking about his torture from Hazel and Cha-Cha, traveling to 'Nam, spending ten months on the front lines with the love of his life and losing him. Vanya remarked that at least Dave was the true thing, unlike Leonard; but she also acknowledged that it didn't make it any less tragic than her situation.

"Vanya," Klaus said quietly as he stroked Vanya's hair, "I’m so sorry this happened to you."

Tears fell down her face. "I was so  _ stupid. _ Allison kept telling me something wasn’t right. He just seemed so…real. We even…." her voice trailed off as Klaus continued running his hand through her hair. "We even…God, just last  _ night! _ Our first time."

"Oh Christ, Vanya," Klaus said mournfully as he laid his free hand on hers.

"How am I going to get through this?" She wailed.

"We’ll get through this together," Klaus squeezed her hand. " _ All _ of us are here for you."

"Do the others really want to help me?" Vanya asked doubtfully as she wiped her eyes.

"Well, Luther and Allison are MIA - and by the way, you weren't the only one Dad lied to; Luther just found out that Dad sent him up to the moon for nothing. Anyway, Five's recovering from a shrapnel wound, and Diego got arrested. They both want to help you, though. Diego was going to drive himself and me to go find you, but the cops got him right as we were getting ready to leave. I actually have his knife harness in the car."

"Diego hates me," Vanya teared up again. "I never should've written that book about you guys. About all of us."

Klaus gently brushed his sister's tears away. "No, honey. He doesn't hate you. And I'm the only one who is the fuck-up of the family. We all will work through this."

The tears spilled down Vanya's face. "I hope so."

Klaus pulled his baby sister close and continued running his fingers through her dark hair. Vanya cried against his chest for a long while. Klaus said nothing and gently rocked her until her sobbing subsided and she went limp in his arms. Klaus rested his head against hers and closed his eyes.

They were startled awake by rapid knocking on the front door at around seven a.m., having slept for about four hours. "Vanya?" A woman with a Brooklyn accent called out.

"Mr. Puddles isn't here," Vanya called out wearily. "And I'm about to leave for the day."

"OK. Thanks, Vanya."

Klaus stretched and rubbed his eyes. "Does this mean you're ready to come back to the Academy?"

Vanya nodded. She spent some time in her bathtub and packed extra clothing in an overnight bag.

"Don't forget your violin," Klaus told her. 

"Klaus, I can't-" Vanya said, horrified.

"Look, if you don't feel right playing in tomorrow's concert, that's cool; you did audition and earn it, though. But it will be good for you to have it. It's important to you. And," Klaus admitted. "I've always loved to hear you play. I wish I would've told you before now."

Vanya gathered her violin and Klaus grabbed the journal as they headed out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was six a.m. Pacific Time as Allison pulled up with Luther to her ex-husband's house. They had arrived via red-eye close to midnight the eve before. Allison knew this was early, but Patrick was a morning person, anyway, and she needed to spend as much time with Claire as possible before the world ended. All hope was lost, however, moments after Patrick opened the door and folded his arms. "Claire isn't here," he said coldly.

"Where is she?" Allison demanded. "I need to see her."

"She's not here, and that's all you need to know."

"Please," Allison loudly implored. "I can't explain, but it's important."

"You're not going to see her," Patrick said bitterly. "Not after skipping your therapy session."

"You know," Luther piped up, glaring at Patrick, "in case you forgot, our dad died last week."

Patrick laughed cynically. "And you must be the infamous Spaceboy!" He looked back at Allison. "Well, guess what. I knew you were bringing him here. Clever way to ensure my daughter would want to see you!"

" _ Our _ daughter," Allison said angrily.

"Not until you follow through with your counseling classes."

"Wait," Allison stopped. "How did you know that we were coming?"

"Oh, yeah, I have a message for you from Pogo. He says you and Spaceboy need to get back home. Your sister is in trouble." With that, Patrick slammed the door in their faces.

Luther and Allison exchanged glances. "What was that about?" Luther wondered.

"Shit," Allison's eyes widened. "I'm pretty sure that this has to do with her boyfriend, Leonard Peabody. I've known all along he was up to no good. We have to book a flight home as soon as possible."

On their way to LAX, Allison explained her observations about Leonard, and Luther seemed to agree. They booked a flight just an hour out, and while awaiting boarding Allison contacted Pogo and learned the truth about her sister.

After she hung up the phone, Allison looked horrified at Luther. "It all makes sense now."

"What makes sense?"

Allison then detailed an incident at four years old when her father said Vanya was quarantined because she was very sick. She accompanied her father to the isolation chamber where they had kept Vanya, and after Vanya was presented with her food and medication, he had Allison rumor Vanya into thinking she was ordinary. "He made me an accomplice," she concluded with tears in her eyes.

"Jesus," Luther said. "Wait, are you sure it's a good idea for you to see her? I mean, we don't know what frame of mind she's in right now. What if she blames you and tries to hurt you?"

"It's a risk I have to take. Because right now Diego and Klaus are the only ones trying to find her, because Five apparently suffered a shrapnel wound from wherever he was and is recovering; but Five just informed Pogo that the cops are looking for Diego thinking he killed his friend, and Klaus was going through withdrawals. If Diego gets arrested, Klaus can't handle this on his own."

"Since when did Klaus decide to get clean?" Luther asked, bewildered. 

"I didn't think to ask. I was processing everything else that Pogo told me. In hindsight, though, I've noticed something different about him since Tuesday night."

Luther nodded. He explained to Allison how Five had discovered that Klaus had stolen Hazel and Cha-Cha's briefcase when he had escaped them, traveled somewhere in time for ten months and then destroyed the briefcase upon return. Five had arranged a meeting with the two assassins and he and Luther provided a fake briefcase full of scrap in return for contact with his former boss, only known as the Handler.

"That name doesn’t sound creepy at all," Allison sarcastically noted, while Luther continued explaining that he and Five had met Hazel and Cha-Cha on a deserted highway and Five did successfully get them to contact their boss, but things had nearly gone sideways when out of nowhere Klaus and Diego showed up in an ice cream truck that played "Ride of the Valkyries," of all things. Five disappeared, and Luther had managed to collect Klaus and Diego and got themselves all out of there. When Luther had made attempts to question Klaus about his time travel during their ride back home, however, Diego had quickly told Luther to drop the subject. 

"Maybe Klaus met and lost someone important during that time, and he tried to get clean to conjure them?" Allison suggested.

"He needs to conjure Dad, then," Luther said bitterly.

"Luther-"

"No," Luther argued. "Dad needs to answer to me for what he did. I sacrificed everything for him my entire life. I never left the house, never had friends, and for what?! For nothing!"

"Luther, Dad lied to all of us," Allison reminded him. “Especially to me and Vanya.”

Thankfully, the boarding for their flight was soon announced. Allison wasn’t liking this side of Luther. How could he make this all about himself, when Vanya not only believed for a lifetime that she wasn’t special, but she was also in grave danger?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Five was anxiously pacing/limping around the living room when Pogo approached him. “Master Luther and Miss Allison have booked the next flight out, and they should arrive here by early evening.”

“Well, we have two days to find this bastard,” Five said impatiently. 

“Master Five, and you’re recovering from a shrapnel wound,” Pogo reminded him.

“I'm well aware,” Five tried to hide his snark; despite what Pogo did, you don’t talk disrespectfully to Pogo.

Suddenly Diego charged in through the foyer.

“Where've you been?” Five wondered.

“Jail,” Diego answered abruptly. “I guess you knew that, though. Did Klaus or Vanya make it back?”

“No.”

“ _ Shit! _ ”

“Either Klaus or Vanya are screwed, I’m guessing; and we may be screwed, too,” Five said unemotionally. “Luther and Allison are on their way back, though.”

“It doesn't matter; Klaus took the car.”

“ _ You let him drive? _ When he’s going through withdrawals?”

“And you drove with a shrapnel wound,” Diego reminded Five.

Five had to admit to himself that Diego had a point. Instead of saying it aloud, Five asked, “Are the cops still after you?”

“Yeah, but a buddy of mine on the force busted me out. Mutual friend of Patch. He knows I didn’t kill her. I still need to lay low, but I want to kill this bastard. And after I’m done with him, I’m going after Hazel and Cha-Cha.”

Just then the front door opened, and Klaus entered with his arm around Vanya.

“Thank  _ Christ _ ,” Diego rushed to them. “Are you guys okay?”

“Physically yeah, but… Vanya's had a rough night,” Klaus said.

“Did you kill Jenkins?” Five asked intensely.

“Jesus, Five!” Diego exclaimed. “Let’s at least make sure our sister is okay before you drill her.”

“He’s dead,” Klaus said somberly, squeezing Vanya's shoulder.

Vanya looked at the floor. “I killed him.”

“So, you did it,” Five beamed. “You killed the guy that caused the apocalypse! This is all over now!”

Vanya's gaze remained on the floor. Klaus gave Vanya's shoulder a rub. “That’s great, Five,” he said flatly.

“Allison was right. He manipulated me the whole time.” Vanya pulled the journal out of her overnight bag.

“What is that?” Diego asked.

“A journal our dear old Dad wrote about us, explaining her powers, and why he suppressed them,” Klaus said.

“Leonard - or Harold, whoever - had used it to turn me against the family.”

“Oh, yeah, there’s quite an impressive murder shrine of all of us Academy kids in his attic,” Klaus said, explaining to the others about the boy who had tried to become one of them, which Diego remembered. 

“Well, that obviously explains his motive, but how did he get a hold of that journal in the first place?” Five wondered.

Pogo looked suspiciously at Klaus. “Yes, I wonder how?”

All eyes lay on Klaus. Great. He had just gotten over completely hating himself for unknowingly giving Harold Jenkins, AKA Leonard Peabody, the gold nugget needed to manipulate their now-emotionally fragile little sister. At this point, everyone else would hate him instead. So much for trying to prove himself useful.

Klaus tossed up his hands. “Okay, okay, okay, I admit I screwed up! I pawned that box for drugs and tossed everything in the dumpster! I’m sorry! I’ve apologized over and over to Vanya and she forgives me! And I’m sorry I lied to you, Pogo; but you need to get off your high horse there, my dear chimpanzee with a human soul, because you haven’t exactly been forthcoming to any of us!”

Vanya stared coldly at Pogo. “Did you know?”

Pogo slightly hung his head while keeping eye contact with Vanya. “Your father knew that you were capable of great things, just like your brothers and sister; but your powers were too great. He only wanted to protect you from yourself, as well as your siblings.”

Vanya's eyes narrowed. “Did you know?” she repeated slowly. 

Klaus inched closer to her. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered, touching her arm. But Vanya didn’t budge from her stance. She waited for an answer.

“Yes, Miss Vanya. I knew.”

Suddenly the room shook as Vanya continued staring Pogo down.

“Vanya…?” Klaus said nervously as he kept a grip on her arm.

“You ruined my life!” She screamed, taking a step toward Pogo.

“Vanya,  _ no! _ ” Klaus jumped between them right as a surge flew out of her, sending Klaus flying through the air and crashing against the wall. His siblings watched in horror as Klaus slid lifelessly down the wall.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“ _ Klaus!!! _ ” Diego screamed as he ran to his brother. He barely paid any attention to Vanya's repeated hysteria, “I didn’t mean to!!! I didn’t mean to!” because Klaus had no pulse.

“Shit!” Diego cried. He quickly scooped up Klaus. “Get Mom to the infirmary  _ NOW! _ ” He barked at Five as he tore up the stairs. By the time Diego got there, so was Grace. He quickly threw Klaus on the bed as Grace pressed the paddles on his chest. Diego held Klaus’ hand as he tearfully pleaded, “Damn it, don’t leave us, you asshole! I can’t lose anyone else! Please!”

Grace applied the paddles for several minutes at Diego's insistence. Then she looked at Diego sadly. “There’s nothing more that I can do. I’m sorry, my dear.”

“DAMN IT!!!” He cried. He laid his head on his brother’s lifeless chest and sobbed. He felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder. 

Just then, however, Klaus sprang up yelling, “I can’t go back! I can't go back!” knocking Diego back in his chair.

“Klaus!” Diego threw his arms around his brother, who was hyperventilating and trembling. “Thank  _ Christ! _ You’re okay, buddy. You’re okay.”

Diego kept his arms around Klaus, trying to calm him down. Klaus was sweating like crazy. Diego couldn’t tell whether this was still due to withdrawal, what just happened, or both. “Come on. You’re okay. It’s okay.”

Mom gave Klaus two melatonin tablets to calm him down. She stroked his hair and talked soothingly to him while Diego kept hold of his hand. Klaus' breathing gradually slowed and he closed his eyes. Within a few minutes Klaus drifted off to sleep.

Mom checked Klaus over and cleared him of any head injuries. Diego picked up Klaus and asked Mom to come to Klaus’ room and watch him for a few minutes so that Diego could talk to Vanya. He wanted to make sure that she was okay, too.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Five took a deep breath before heading back downstairs. He didn’t want to admit that whole scene had rattled him. It was one thing for Five to stand behind the gun targeting a complete stranger during his "employment," but watching a family member die was nearly as traumatic as when he first jumped forward into a wasteland, and subsequently found his siblings dead. He wondered what it was like for the others when Ben died. Five soon recomposed himself and started down.

Vanya was at the bar, having cracked open Dad’s liquor cabinet when Five entered the room. “Klaus is okay,” he told her.

She let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

“Is that really a good idea?” Five observed the eight-ounce glass full of liquor.

“Anything to nullify my feelings. I don’t want to keep killing people. Especially my family,” Vanya slightly slurred as tears ran down her face.

“So, you’re going to be a junkie like Klaus now?” Five said bluntly.

“Just leave me alone. Please.”

“Let me talk to her,” Diego stood in the doorway.

Five shrugged. “Fine. Have at it.” He left the room.

Diego sat down on the stool next to her. “Klaus is gonna be fine. He’s resting right now.” He then gently pulled the glass away from her. “Let’s not do this. Okay? This isn’t going to help with us learning how to control your powers. Come on.” He helped her up and led her to the couch.

“I didn’t mean to,” Vanya wailed.

Diego put a hand on her shoulder. “I know you didn’t. And Klaus knows, too. He’s a very forgiving person.”

“I just got mad. I felt betrayed. And I’m so scared. Maybe I do need to be locked up.”

“No, that’s not the answer, either,” Diego said quietly but authoritatively. “We need to help you with your powers. Not because we’re afraid of you, but because you’re our sister.”

Vanya looked at Diego with bloodshot eyes. “You don’t hate me? After what I did?”

“To Klaus? No. We both know you didn’t mean to hurt him. Or Pogo, either."

“No, I mean the book. I never should have written it.”

Diego sighed and thought of how to choose his wording, given Vanya's now-fragile state of mind. True, he was angry with her for a long time. She had painted herself to be the victim and the siblings the monsters, he had thought. He had been particularly angry about an excerpt where she mentioned his “taunting.” He had never thought of himself as a bully. He was just being a smartass kid who liked to play pranks. Klaus had recently reminded him of one when they were eight years old and Diego had told him that licking a nine-volt battery would give him pubes. But her overall perspective wasn’t entirely exaggerated. After all, she  _ was _ left out of a lot, thanks to Dad's mind manipulation, and they were wrong to exclude her from the apocalypse meeting. Most importantly, he needed to let go of this bitterness and help her. She was reaching out for it.

“Look, Vanya. We all made mistakes. Klaus did by tossing the journal in the dumpster. Luther and I didn’t realize that Klaus was missing for twenty-four hours because we were too busy looking for Five's drunk ass. Luther thinks the world  _ and _ the moon revolve around him. And I hope you realize that Allison wouldn’t have known what she was doing because you both were too young. Once things settle down, we’ll work through these things, okay? Right now, we need to focus on helping you. And I promise I will do as much as I can to help. Okay?”

Vanya nodded silently as tears still fell.

“Hey,” Diego said quietly, placing his hand back on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for what that asshole did to you.”

With that, Vanya broke down sobbing. Diego held Vanya until she cried herself to sleep. He picked her up, and prior to carrying her to her old bedroom, he also grabbed the journal that was lying on the counter. After he deposited her on the bed, Diego went back to Klaus’ room to relieve Mom, who said she would make a crock pot of soup for later.

Diego sat in the recliner at the foot of Klaus’ bed and watched his brother breathe for a few minutes, grateful that he could. Throughout the years Diego had tried to prepare himself for the news that Klaus had died from an overdose, or from a beating by either a disgruntled john and/or because of the person Klaus was. About a year ago Diego had heard a call on his police radio about a dead junkie whose description perfectly matched that of Klaus except no mention of his respective  _ HELLO _ and  _ GOOD BYE  _ hand-palm tattoos or the Umbrella Academy insignia that all of the siblings, except Vanya, had gotten as kids; when Diego had arrived at the scene it had already been cleared, but one of the cops was Diego's friend and said, “It’s not your brother.” It was after then that Diego could never say no to giving Klaus a ride or some food. 

Throughout the years Diego had often wondered whether he was really helping Klaus or just enabling Klaus’ addiction. However, the main reason Diego had always looked after Klaus was because Klaus never stole from him or any of Diego's associates who tried to help him. Klaus recently did admit to Diego that he had looted valuable items from their father to pawn following Sir Reginald's death; despite knowing Klaus spent the money on drugs Diego had figured that the old man deserved it. And yet now Diego almost lost his brother just when Klaus finally became serious about his sobriety.

Diego could now acknowledge having no regrets in helping Klaus, especially since Klaus was the only sibling that Diego had always liked, despite Klaus’ eccentricity. He knew that Klaus had always been shrugged off by their dad and, of course, Luther; and Klaus had taken Ben's death the worst out of anyone. Along with his vigilanté duties, Diego had also done what he could to look out for Klaus, and Diego's street friends did so as well. Hopefully Klaus would continue down this new path, and Diego wouldn’t have to worry quite as much about his brother any longer.

Then Diego eyed the journal sitting in his lap. He opened to where it was earmarked about Number Seven needing to be sedated. Fuck. How many things did Dad do to the others of which Diego was unaware? He randomly flipped through the pages until he found an entry that gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

_ 00.04 Conjuring Incident 06/16/01 _ __   
_ I found that number four was simply not progressing in his abilities to conjure the non-living. He seems to not want to embrace this power. I sped up that ability tonight by locking him in the mausoleum overnight. Hypothetically he is seeing gore and death, but to be effective he must become desensitized to this. _ __   
_ Notes from incident: _ __   
_ \- Klaus resistant _ __   
_ \- More fearful than I’ve ever seen him _ _   
_ __ _ \- Trying to squeeze himself through gated bars. Appears to be seeing if he has another super power he doesn’t know about._

__

_ WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. HELL, _ Diego thought to himself.  _ He fucking locked Klaus in a mausoleum when we were eleven?! _ Was this the only time Dad did this? When did this start?! Diego turned the pages backward and found close to ten entries, the earliest dating back to when they were eight.

_ 00.04 Conjuring Incident 05/23/98 _

_ Today I began a special training of number four to help him overcome his fear of the non-living by locking him in a mausoleum with corpses at a nearby cemetery. After five hours I checked on him. He attempted lying that he had gotten over his fear, but I saw through his weakness. As punishment for his deception I locked him in for another three hours. _

Diego nearly swore out loud. That bastard. Other entries indicated the detailed descriptions of what Klaus had seen: ghosts in the appearance of how they died, whether of natural causes, blood and gore, and even some who had been torn in half or burned alive. He flipped through the pages to when he knew Klaus started using drugs. The last mausoleum entry was in mid-2003 after Klaus had started his descent into addiction. Dad - no, Reginald - wrote that Number Four was his greatest disappointment.  _ ASSHOLE!!! _

Diego again looked at his brother resting peacefully. Within the past three days he had learned more about Klaus than he had ever wanted to know. And it was beyond tragic. Now he understood why Mom wanted Klaus to be included in helping find Vanya; they had much in common. Klaus needed at least just as much help as Vanya, especially with his newfound sobriety. And Diego resolved to help Klaus to the best of his ability, too.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

When Klaus awoke, the sun had just set. He looked to Diego sitting in the recliner at the foot of his bed, head tilted back and eyes closed. Klaus quietly got up and peeled off his palm-tree neon tank top that was drenched in sweat. He glanced at it thinking, _ I'm never going to look at that shirt the same way again, _ before tossing it in the hamper.

He had just put on a cropped tie dye shirt when the jingle of his dog tags alerted Diego. “Sorry, bro,” Klaus said. “Didn't mean to wake you.”

“I really wasn’t sleeping,” Diego admitted. “How are you feeling?”

“Got a headache worse than any hangover I’ve ever had, but I’m good otherwise.”

“Think you’re up to eating? Mom made soup and I’ll get you some aspirin.”

Klaus nodded. “That sounds good.”

After Diego left the room, Ben appeared. “Well, I’m glad not to have to see you in the afterlife,” he smiled.

“God doesn’t even want me there,” Klaus whined. “Seriously, she said she didn’t like me. I thought God was supposed to love all of us!”

Ben laughed. “Yeah, she’s kind of an odd sort.”

“You never told me this, you bastard,” Klaus grinned. “Dear brother of mine.”

Ben left a minute later once Diego returned with the soup. They were silent for a minute while Klaus ate. “Is Vanya okay?” Klaus finally asked.

“Yeah, she’s resting, too. She feels horrible about what she did.”

Klaus smiled. “I know she didn’t mean to hurt me.”

“That’s what I told her. But you can tell her later. Meanwhile, finish your soup, please, because when you’re done, we need to talk.”

Klaus felt a hint of dread. “What did I do this time? I know I fucked up-”

“Klaus. Shut up and eat,” Diego ordered. “Nothing is wrong; don’t worry.”

Klaus tried to eat a little faster, curious as to what this was about; unfortunately, his stomach was still a little queasy and he had this damn headache. When he was done he took the aspirin while Diego put the food tray aside. Then Diego closed Klaus’ bedroom door and sat in the chair beside Klaus’ bed.

Diego took a deep breath before he said, “Uh, I read Dad's journal.”

Klaus nervously chuckled. “Guess it’s not the most ideal bedtime story.”

Diego smiled, but sadly, before continuing. “He wrote about all of his so-called training sessions,” He paused before adding, “Including yours.”

Klaus frowned as he nodded and stared at his hands. 

“Jesus, Klaus. How come you never said anything?” Diego asked quietly.

Klaus bit his lip as he swallowed a lump in his throat. _ Damn it, I’m not going to cry like a baby around him for the third day in a row. _

“Klaus,” Diego placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You can talk to me. I mean, I don’t want to push you if it’s too painful, but I’m here if you want to talk.”

Klaus looked at him and let out a slight snicker, despite the tears brimming in his eyes. “So, how enlightening were his entries?"

"Enough for me to know that I can't even imagine what you've been through," Diego said sadly. "He wrote about what all you saw, and how scared you were.”

Klaus unsuccessfully blinked back tears. “He said it was just a weakness. I tried. I wanted to be desensitized like he kept saying over and over that I’d needed to be. I wanted to be strong like you and everyone else. But I couldn't. No matter how much I tried hardening myself, I was always too scared. The drugs were the only way I could cope. It was how I could keep them all away. I didn’t have to see them. I didn’t have to hear them screaming my name, over and over…non-stop.” His voice quivered. “And then, Dad only said I that was his biggest disappointment. I was too weak.”

Diego thought about his own comments to his brother. _ All that shit you do, it's just weakness, _ he had said the other day. And then less than an hour later he had called Klaus an idiot after Klaus had saved his life.

“Klaus, you’re not weak,” Diego said. “I think you’re the strongest person I know.”

Klaus laughed and jerked his head back. “Hey, I’m supposed to be the jokester.”

“I’m serious,” Diego looked straight at him. “For you to help Vanya after all the shit you went through the past three days… okay, I realize by your perspective it’s ten months… _ and _ going through withdrawals. When I said last night that I was proud of you, I meant it.”

“Thanks,” Klaus smiled through his tears.

“So, do you see these ghosts now?” Diego asked. 

“Not so much yet. I just need to stay away from that mausoleum. But I guess I should let you know that I’ve been able to see Ben since he died.”

Diego's eyebrows shot up. “Really? Is he here right now?”

“Not at the moment. He was earlier but wants to respect others’ privacy. Y'know, not eavesdrop and stuff.”

Diego nodded. He recalled the numerous times growing up that Klaus would wake up screaming in the middle of the night and Ben would always go to him. Diego then thought of something else. “Can I ask… your time in ‘Nam, do you get flashbacks of that now, too?”

“I did, but I’m hoping that since I can conjure Dave, maybe those will go away.”

Diego placed his hand back on Klaus’ shoulder. “Listen, bro, I know we need to help Vanya, but we also need to help you. We're not sure what we’ll have to face if you continue to stay sober. And I want you sober. I like this version of Klaus much better. Please, whenever you need to talk about anything or you’re just going through it, you can talk to me. Any time, day or night.”

Klaus nodded. “I will.” He wiped away his tears and smiled. “But it goes both ways, big guy. I know you don't like talking about feelings, but I’m here for you, too. And you’ve just been through it as well. And I have to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Why do you think you need to apologize to Mom? How did you let her down?”

Diego sighed. “Klaus, Hazel and Cha-Cha didn’t shut Mom down. I did.”

Klaus’ eyes grew large. “What?”

“Her hardware was degrading. She didn’t even know our house had been shot up. And then she was running her cross-stitching through her arm.” Diego blinked back tears. “I was afraid that if Luther found her he’d shut her off with no mercy, treating her like an appliance. Plus, we still had to wait on Five, and if he sided with Luther we’d be tied and Luther probably would’ve done it anyway. At least she would be with someone who would show mercy. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.” His voice broke.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” Klaus rubbed his brother’s shoulder. “But she’s okay. And back to her old self. And she seemed more guilty that she and Pogo had kept these things from us.”

Diego frowned. “I blame Da…I mean, Hargreeves. He’s not our dad. Never was.”

“Oh, by the way,” Klaus said. “Speaking of Sir Reggie… well, those few minutes I was dead, I kind of ended up having a conversation with him.”

“_ What?! _”

Diego listened as Klaus described being in a monochromatic world except for his tank top and God being a girl on a bicycle who said she didn’t like him so he couldn’t stay, and entering a barber shop expecting to see Dave again only to receive a shave by Sir Reginald himself. Klaus detailed their conversation including confronting him about Luther finding out the truth about his useless moon mission, to which Reggie had responded, “That was foolish of me. I should have burned it all.” Then he told Diego that Sir Reginald admitted that his death indeed was not of natural causes: he killed himself hoping it would bring the family back together to stop the apocalypse.

“Holy shit,” Diego muttered.

“Yeah, the bastard could never do things the easy way. When I asked why he couldn’t have just picked up a phone, he just said, ‘Would you have answered?’”

“That asshole,” Diego said bitterly. “Always blaming everyone else. Did he even say anything useful?”

Klaus shook his head and chuckled sadly. “I’m still his biggest disappointment. Although he did say I barely scratched the surface of my full potential.”

“Wait,” Diego thought of something. “If you were stuck with that asshole, why didn’t you want to come back here?”

“Oh, I did, eventually, but I had so many other questions I had for him. I knew that if I came back, I would never try to conjure him again.”

Just then there was a knock at the door. Diego opened it to Vanya.

“Hi,” she said timidly and mournfully. “I heard talking. Can I-can I come in?”

Diego stepped aside. Vanya looked at Klaus with tears in her eyes. “Klaus….”

Klaus smiled held out his arms. Vanya ran into them, crying loudly.

“I'm so sorry, Klaus! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Klaus stroked her hair. “It’s okay. I’m fine. We’re gonna be okay. I love you.”

After they pulled away in a few minutes, Diego advised Klaus to reveal what he had just learned about Hargreeves. Afterward, with Klaus’ permission, Diego told Vanya of Sir Reginald’s experiments on Klaus. Vanya looked horrified at her brother and again took him in her arms.

“I don’t know how much of a help I can be right now, but I’ll try to help you in whatever way I can,” Vanya said.

“We’ll help each other,” Klaus smiled.

The conversation switched to more lighthearted memories, including sneaking out to Griddy's in the middle of the night, the pranks Diego played on Klaus, and Five freaking out the department store clerk by teleporting.

Soon they heard the front door open. “Five? Diego? Where is everyone?” Luther called from downstairs. 

Klaus looked at Vanya and took her hands. “Are you ready to see them?” He asked gently.

Vanya sighed, and then she nodded with determination. “Yes. Let’s go.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hello?” Allison called from the foyer.

Five zapped in. “Well, about time you showed up. Even though we already averted the apocalypse.”

Luther looked at Allison. “I told you I wasn’t the right person to stop this.”

“What’s going on?” Allison demanded, ignoring Luther. “Is Vanya okay? Are _ all _of you okay?” 

Vanya came down the stairs with Diego and Klaus following. She stood at the center of the foyer facing Allison.

Allison looked at Vanya. Her face said it all. Vanya knew everything - about her powers, that their father had lied to her and he’d made Allison had rumor her. 

“Vanya, I didn’t know what I was doing back then,” Allison tearfully pleaded. “Please believe me. I’m so sorry about Leonard. And about everything. I love you.”

Vanya ran into her sister’s arms and the two wept.


	4. Chapter 4

A few minutes after the sisters’ reconciliation the siblings migrated to the living room, including Ben, where Vanya explained Leonard's/Harold's machinations and her killing him. None of the other siblings enlightened Luther or Allison of Vanya's other attack.

Then Klaus brought up the subject of his conversation with Dad.

Luther stared blankly at him. “I thought you said you haven’t been able to conjure anyone in years.”

“Ah, yes, I know, but I’m sober! Ta-da! I got clean yesterday to talk to someone special, which I did. But then today I ended up having a conversation with dear old Daddy himself.”

“Okay,” Five said, disbelieving. “I’ll play. What did the old man have to say?”

“Well, he gave me the usual lecture about my appearance and failures in life, yadda, yadda, yadda. No surprise there; even the afterlife can’t soften a hardass like him. But he did mention his murder or lack thereof, because…”

“Wait for it,” Ben muttered.

“...he killed himself,” Klaus concluded in a forced dramatic fashion.

Diego and Vanya exchanged glances. The others sure got the watered-down version.

“I don’t have time for your games, Klaus,” Luther started to get up from the couch.

“He’s telling the truth,” Diego snapped at Luther.

“Why'd he do it, then?” Five asked.

“He said it was the only way to get the family back together again.”

“Dad wouldn’t just kill himself,” Luther argued. 

“Well, you said it yourself. He was depressed; holed up in his office and room day and night,” Five pointed out.

“No. There weren’t any signs,” Luther objected. “Suicidal people exhibit certain tendencies, strange behaviors." 

“Like sending someone to the moon for no reason?” Klaus quipped. Diego bit his lip to keep from laughing.  _ Good one, Klaus. _

Luther stepped toward Klaus. “I swear to God, Klaus, if you’re lying-” Diego shot up and stood between them.

“Master Klaus is correct.”

The siblings turned to see Pogo standing by the secret door behind the bookshelf.

“Regretfully, I helped Master Hargreeves enact his plan,” Pogo sighed.   
  


“What?” Luther snapped.

“So did Grace,” Pogo continued. “It was a difficult choice for both of us. More difficult than you could ever know. Prior to your father's death, Grace's programming was adjusted so that she was incapable of administering first aid on that fateful night.”   
  


“Sick bastard,” Klaus muttered.

  
“So the security tape we saw?” Allison inquired. 

“It was meant to further the murder mystery,” Pogo explained. “Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together,would reignite your desire to be a team again.”   
  


“And to what end?” Five asked.

“To save the world, of course.”

  
Luther glared at Pogo. “First the moon mission and now this. You watched me search for answers and said nothing.” He then raised his voice. “Anything else you want to share, Pogo? Any other damn secrets?!”

“Calm down, Luther,” Allison sighed.

  
“No, I won't calm down. We've been lied to by the one person in this family we all trusted!”

“It was your father's dying wish, Master Luther,” Pogo sighed again. “I had no choice.   
  


“There's always choice,” Luther said bitterly.

Pogo sadly turned around and left the room.

“Luther-” Allison said.

Luther then noticed the whisky bottle on the counter. He marched over to it and angrily poured a full glass.

“Seriously, Luther?” Diego looked in disbelief as Luther quickly downed the entire glass and poured another.

“Look, I did my time, all right? Four years up there, watching and waiting because he said the world needed me. Four years of nothing but soy paste and processed air because I was naive enough to believe that dads don't lie to their kids. But guess what? The joke's on me. I'm done. With all of it. I’m fine to sit right here and get my buzz on.”

Allison rolled her eyes. “You’re being unreasonable.” Then she grabbed her sister’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go to my room and talk.”

After the two sisters left, the three other brothers continued to observe Luther as he began guzzling his second glass. He slammed it down and started pouring a third when Klaus approached him. “Hey, hey, hey, come on. That’s enough of that-” Klaus tried to take it from Luther, and the next thing Klaus knew he was sent sliding across the floor. Five teleported and caught him.

Diego sprang up and punched Luther in the face. Luther staggered and then ran toward Diego, crashing into the bar and breaking the glass in the process. Diego then shoved Luther against the pillar and quickly threw several knives, pinning Luther by his overcoat.

“Don’t you  _ ever _ lay a hand on him again,” Diego yelled through gritted teeth.

“Since when are you so defensive of him?!” Luther slurred.

“You don’t even know a fraction of the shit he’s been through,” Diego said angrily. “None of us did.”

Klaus stood up and wandered to the couch. “It’s okay, Diego-”

“No, it’s  _ not _ okay that these two treat you like shit,” Diego looked at Luther and Five.

“ _ What _ is going on?!” Allison demanded as she and Vanya reentered the room.

“What’s the big deal?” Luther slurred. “He’s always been useless.”

Diego grabbed Luther by the collar. “ _ You _ are going to listen to me. Because I know you won’t try to tear away and reveal your ape-like body again.”

“Whatever,” Luther groaned.

“Y'know, when you sober up, you should take a look at Sir Reginald’s journal and see some of the sick things he’s done to some of us,” Diego hissed. “Like repeatedly locking Klaus in a mausoleum with corpses for five years thinking this would get him over his fear of ghosts!”

“Jesus!” Allison looked at Klaus.

“Wow, sick bastard indeed,” Five muttered.

“Is that why-” Allison started to say.

“I became a junkie. Yeah.” Klaus looked at his hands again.

“I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay.”

“Why  _ did _ you finally get sober, then?” Five asked. “I know this had to do with your time travel. Where did you go for ten months?”

Klaus kept his gaze dropped. “1968. ‘Nam.”

“What?!” Five exclaimed. “You stayed there for ten months in the war? Why didn’t you come back, you idiot?”

Klaus shot his head up and glared at Five. “Oh, gee, I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t want to come back to a so-called family who constantly treats me like garbage and didn’t even notice that I was missing while being tortured by your buddies for twenty-four hours!”

“And you really think that spending ten months in a war zone was better?” Five retaliated.

“You met someone,” Allison said quietly.

Klaus nodded, dropping his gaze again. Trying not to cry.

“And you lost him,” Allison concluded.

Klaus sighed, not wanting to say anything further.

“Jesus,” Five whispered. “I didn’t know.”

Suddenly Klaus shot up from the couch. “How  _ would _ you have known?! All you did was give me shit for destroying the damn briefcase. If I remember correctly, you even called me a moron! Well, I’m sorry, but Dave had just died in my arms not an hour before. So,  _ fuck _ you, Five! And fuck you, Luther! Fuck you, too, Diego, for telling both of these assholes my business in the first place!”

“Klaus, I'm-” Diego started.

“ _ FUCK ALL OF YOU! _ ” Klaus screamed as he tore out the front door, not bothering to grab his shoes.

Diego started after him, but Allison stopped Diego. “Let me talk to him.”

“Me too,” Vanya followed her sister out the door.

Without another word Diego retrieved his knives, freeing Luther, who stumbled back to the liquor bottle.

“Are you  _ fucking _ kidding me, Luther?” Diego exclaimed as he watched Luther take another swig of the bottle.

“Dad, you, Allison and now Klaus have made it very clear that  _ I’m  _ the useless sibling,” Luther slurred and downed one more mouthful.

“No, Luther,” Diego argued. “Dad lied to all of us. Remember?”

Five shook his head. “You can’t reason with him right now, Diego.”

“You know, I think I liked Klaus better when he was high,” Luther mumbled. “He was more carefree.”

“I’m afraid you’re in the minority there, Luther,” Five objected, ignoring his own advice.

“I don’t care,” Luther took one more large chug before straggling up and marching toward the front entrance.

“Where are you going?” Diego snapped.

“To become a Number Four. I need a night out for once.” With that, Luther headed out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klaus had instantly regretted being outside in bare feet. He had already stepped on a rock and a small glass shard. But he couldn’t go back and face them. Not after such a performance. So much for family bonding. Maybe he should just fuck everything and go get high again. The thought of that made tears roll down his face. Was he really willing to give up so easily?

“Klaus!” Allison called from behind him.

“Leave me alone!”

“Klaus!”

Shit. That was Vanya. He had to stop. The sisters quickly caught up with him.

Allison grabbed his arms. “Klaus, I’m sorry. About everything you went through.”

“I don’t need your pity, Allison-”

“But you need our help,” Vanya pleaded. “Just as much as I need yours.

Klaus looked at Vanya through his tears. He wasn’t certain whether the mournful look in her eyes was from shock at his outburst, or hurt by his  _ fuck-you-all _ parting words just before.

“I’m sorry, Vanya,” Klaus finally quivered. “To both of you. I’m not mad at either of you; and Allison, thank you for being understanding, too.”

“Klaus, I don’t pity you,” Allison said. “In fact, I see the same person I adored when we were kids. The one who painted my nails, and who held me after we got those damn tattoos. I missed that person.”

Klaus tearfully nodded. When he thought of it, he realized he had missed that person, too. Someone who actually knew to give love rather than just be a perpetual selfish strung-out junkie. “Thanks.”

“Look, Klaus,” Allison said. “I will eventually need to go back to L.A. soon and work on my relationship with my daughter. But I’m going to fly back here at least one weekend a month to continue reconnecting with you all, and helping both you and Vanya. And I want all three of us to do things together, like going shopping or something.”

“I do need a makeover, I believe,” Vanya laughed.

“Oh, honey, I’m all yours,” Klaus chuckled back and wiped his tears.

“Let’s go home, okay?” Allison pleaded. “Just ignore Luther; he’s drunk out of his mind right now.”

Klaus nodded. He walked arm-in-arm with his sisters back to the Academy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego cleaned up the broken glass and its contents from the counter. He put the topper back on the decanter and placed the liquor back in the cabinet. He felt defeated. He had really fucked up after Klaus had just gotten clean and had come to really trust him. He was afraid that he had unraveled all of the progress he had made with Klaus over the past three days. He only hoped that Allison and Vanya could get through to him, and that Klaus wouldn’t get loaded. 

Meanwhile, Five was pacing the floor. “What, Five?” Diego snapped.

“I don’t get it. How did Dad know to kill himself a week before the apocalypse?”

“I don’t know, and I really don’t care right now,” Diego said wearily.

The front door opened. Allison and Vanya returned with Klaus. “Hi,” he smiled weakly.

“Hey, man,” Diego approached Klaus cautiously. “Look, I’m sorry. You’re right; I shouldn’t have said anything without your permission first. I was just pissed off. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too, Klaus, that I was such an asshole when you first got back,” Five added. “Spending forty-five years in the apocalypse can really desensitize a person.”

“It’s okay,” Klaus said. “I’m actually glad everyone knows.” He looked at Diego's guilty expression. “Really, Diego, it’s fine. We’re fine. I think I just took my anger out on you. I’m sorry, too.” Diego gratefully accepted his hug.

“Five, I also owe you an apology,” Vanya said suddenly.

“For…?”

“Not believing you about the apocalypse. I complained of feeling excluded when I was the first person you reached out to. You were my closest friend growing up. It hurt like hell when you disappeared. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if I had listened and tried to help. Maybe Leonard wouldn’t have manipulated me.”

“And I’m sorry I kick-started this by throwing the damn journal in the dumpster,” Klaus said.

“That was ten months ago,” Five smiled. “Okay, now can we stop getting all sentimental here?”

“Oh, Numero Cinco, you’re a softie just like most of us,” Klaus purred.

“Children?”

Again, Pogo stood cautiously at the bookshelf door. They all stared. Klaus slipped his hand in Vanya's. “I’ll be okay,” she whispered.

“I understand the hurt by my breach of trust. Quite honestly, I despised doing these things. You all must understand that as I said at the funeral, I was forever indebted to your father for making me who I am today: a human soul, as Master Klaus put it. But I can assure you, that is the last of my knowledge of your father’s secrets.”

“So you don’t know why he killed himself a week before the apocalypse?” Five asked.

“Like I said to Master Luther, your father was many things; forthright was not one of them.”

“Pogo?” Vanya said timidly.

“Yes, Miss Vanya?”

“I want to see it. The chamber.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, Vanya,” Allison said cautiously. 

“I want closure,” Vanya said.

“Then I’m coming with you,” Klaus insisted, his hand still in Vanya's.

“Then I am, too,” Diego said authoritatively.

“Me as well,” Allison chimed in.

“I guess I should go, also,” Five said.

Five minutes later Pogo brought them down an elevator to what seemed like a hundred yards underground. Hand-in-hand Vanya and Klaus followed Pogo through a tunnel with their other siblings behind them. When they reached the chamber, Vanya had Pogo open the door.

It looked different from when they were kids,Vanya realized. The walls were completely soundproofed. But then the flashbacks came. Of Dad walking her to the chamber despite her fears. The isolation. The separation from her other siblings. What Dad made Allison do. Vanya began shaking.

As memories of his own times in isolation came back to the surface, Klaus wrapped his arms around his sister. “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay,” he repeated over and over. He needed to be strong for her. Meanwhile, Klaus' comforting words resonated in Vanya's head. She felt the energy, similar to what she emitted at the audition. It permeated throughout this otherwise dark place. She was safe. She was loved.

Diego and Allison came up from behind and also put their hands on their siblings’ shoulders. Five stayed behind, this being too awkward for him.

After about another minute, Vanya looked at Klaus. “Let’s go,” she whispered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ten minutes later Diego and Allison found Klaus and Vanya asleep on his bed, Klaus lying on his back with his arms around Vanya, whose head lay on his chest. Diego quietly closed the door.

That was the first time Allison noticed that Luther's room was empty. “Where's Luther?” Allison looked at Diego.

“Oh, yeah,” Diego remembered. “Uh, Luther decided to have a night on the town. He said specifically that he wanted to be Number Four.”

“We have to find him,” Allison said with urgency.

“There’s no reasoning with him, Allison-”

“No,” Allison interrupted. “If he gets high… remember that drugs suppressed both Vanya's and Klaus’ powers? Luther won’t have his superhuman strength to defend himself if he pisses off the wrong people.”

Diego sighed. Allison was right. “Okay. You stay here. Keep an eye on those two,” he nodded toward Klaus’ bedroom door. “But I need a favor. I need to use your rental car. The cops are still after me, and they know Dad’s car with that damn vanity plate.”

Allison sighed, walked in her room and came out with the key. “Drive the speed limit. Don’t peel the tires like you did with your car.”

“Jesus, Allison. Give me some credit.”

“ _ How _ many speeding tickets have you gotten?”

“Shut up, sis.” Diego patted her on the shoulder as he headed down the stairs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fortunately, Diego had great rapport with the bouncers at most of the bars, as he would occasionally get calls to pick up Klaus over the years. Diego never imagined that he’d be doing this for their Number One.

Diego went through seven bars, three strip joints and a laundromat (just because it was open, so why not) until finally hitting a rave where he was informed that the “biggest hairy guy” anyone had ever seen had gotten kicked out… with a girl he had picked up.

Shit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Allison was in bed reading Sir Reginald's journal when she heard scuffling out in the hallway. She opened the door long enough to see Luther's back turned to her, ushering a girl into his room and closing his door.

This was the worst night of her life since losing custody of her daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I uploaded these first four chapters within the same day. I’m still tweaking around with my remaining chapters but plan to upload them relatively quickly. I have a total of thirteen planned, so much more to come. 😻


	5. Chapter 5

Diego returned home to find Allison nursing a glass of scotch.

“Allison…” Diego was concerned.

“Don’t worry. This is my only one.”

“Are you okay?” Diego asked quietly.

Allison looked at her glass. “Luther made it home.”

“I’m sorry, Allison.”

Allison sighed. “I did this to myself. I set myself up to get hurt.”

“How did you?” Diego inquired. “We all knew about you and Luther. He had always pined after you since we were thirteen.”

Allison nodded, not looking up from her glass.

Suddenly it dawned on Diego. “You rumored him back then, didn’t you?”

She nodded bitterly. “I rumored him when we were thirteen, rumored my way into my marriage and the Love on Loan trilogy, which is obviously a metaphor of my life, and I lost custody of my daughter after Patrick caught me rumoring her. That’s why I stopped using my power. You know, Vanya said this to me the other day, and I know she regrets it now because she was angry at the time, but she was right: I’ve based my entire life on rumors.”

Diego didn’t know how to respond to that. Jesus, since when did he become the family therapist?

“How do I tell him?” Allison looked him straight in the eye.

“Jesus, Allison, I don’t know. His state of mind has been pretty fucked up since finding out about the moon mission.”

“I know. That’s what worries me. Dad lied to him. I’m the only other person he's ever really trusted, and I lied to him, too.”

Diego sighed. “Well, sometimes things have a way of working themselves out. Maybe you’ll know when, and if, the timing is right.”

“I guess.” Allison finished her drink. “Well, I’m going to bed.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego heard a knock on his door at eight a.m. Before he could roll out of bed Five barged in. “Jesus, Five!” He exclaimed. 

“Get up. We’re having a family meeting downstairs.”

“What’s this about?” Diego whined.

“Just meet me downstairs.” Five left to go rap on Klaus’ door. “Klaus. Vanya. Get up. Family meeting in the living room _ now _.”

“What the fuck!” Diego heard Klaus say.

Diego then thought of something and quickly made it to the hallway. “Hey, Five. Go downstairs. I’ll get the others up.”

“Fine. Just be quick.”

Vanya stumbled out of Klaus’ bedroom. Klaus was fishing in the closet for another shirt.

“Klaus, stay here for a minute,” Diego said.

“Why, dear brother?”

“Trust me.” Diego left to knock on Allison's door.

“I know. Family meeting. I’m getting dressed,” Diego heard Allison through the door.

Diego walked back into Klaus’ room as Klaus was putting on a brightly-colored striped shirt. Allison walked out in the hallway.

“Go downstairs,” he told her. “I’ll deal with Luther.”

Allison nodded and left.

“Oh, is Luther back to being his dear, charming self?” Klaus smirked.

Diego grinned as he picked up a handbell on Klaus’ shelf and gave it to him. “Actually, _ you’re _ going to deal with him. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luther awoke groggily with a headache. He slowly looked over at the girl lying next to him. Shit. He had taken some drugs at a rave and didn’t remember anything afterward. He lifted his blankets and looked down.

_ Shit!!! _

Suddenly a loud handbell was being rung, the noise growing louder as whoever was getting closer to his door.

“Wakey, wakey!” Klaus sang. “Eggs and _ bakey-y-y-y! _”

Luther quickly threw his comforter around his waist and opened the door.

“Oh, there's the man!” Klaus grinned. “Someone pulled a disappearing act last night. What miss-chief did you get into?”

“What?” Luther angrily whispered. “I didn't!”

  
“Oh, no?” Klaus looked past Luther into his room. “Maybe I should ask her. Hello!” He waved at the woman in Luther's bed with the bell. She waved back.

Luther quickly stepped out and closed the door.

Klaus chuckled. “Oh, come on! Don't be so shy, big guy. You needed it! Not a lot of ladies on the moon, I assume; and all that…” Klaus flexed his muscles, “…pressure resting on those big…hairy…shoulders.” He giggled again.

“Klaus! Enough!”

Klaus paused, and then his eyes widened. “Wait. Was this, like…. Is this your f-”

Luther stared at Klaus with a pained expression.

“No way! Whoo!” Klaus danced in a circle, ringing the bell.

“We are _ not _ having this discussion!”

Klaus sang, “He popped his cherry!” Then he gasped, “Now you're gonna have to _ marry _ her!”

“_ Would you keep your voice down? _” Luther hissed.

“Hey, you know, I remember my first…oh, no, I don't.”

“Klaus! What is it?” Luther snapped.

“What? Oh, uh, important family business. Meet us all downstairs, okay? And Luther, no dilly-dallying, all right? Chop, chop.” Klaus walked back down the hall ringing the bell as Luther scrambled back into his room.

Klaus deposited the bell back in his bedroom before sauntering over to Diego's. Diego was sitting on his bed, holding his hand over his mouth and shaking from suppressed laughter.

“See you downstairs, darling,” Klaus sang.

Two minutes later Luther was stumbling with his lady friend out into the hallway. Diego stood under the door frame of his room. Luther looked at Diego with what was probably the same amount of dread as he probably did at Klaus’ realization of it being Luther's first time.

“Use the back door,” Diego told him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So, what's this about?” Luther grumbled to Five, ignoring the daggers Allison was giving him.

Five held up the newspaper. “This is it. The apocalypse is still on. This is the newspaper that I found the day I got stuck. The headline hasn’t changed.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Diego argued. “The timeline could have still been altered even before this was published.”

“No, you’re not _ listening! _” Five exclaimed. “All this time I thought that Harold Jenkins was responsible, but he was just the fuse.” Five then looked dreadfully at Vanya.

Her eyes widened. “_ I _ cause it? With my powers?”

“This is bullshit, Five!” Diego snapped.

“I think maybe we should keep her isolated for the weekend,” Five suggested.

“No!” Klaus stood up. “We are _ not _ doing that! _ No fucking way! _”

“My concert…it’s tonight,” Vanya said sadly. “You all have tickets to go. That was why we were here the other day. I never got to tell you.”

“And we’re going!” Klaus insisted. “I am, anyway.”

“Me too,” Allison and Diego said in unison.

“But, Vanya, if your violin is the lightning rod,” Luther objected, “I mean, Harold did kill the original First Chair for a reason.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Vanya dropped her gaze.

“Plus, whose idea was it to get us tickets?” Five asked. “Originally, I mean.” 

“His,” she whispered.

“His motive was to have you invite us so you could kill us all,” Five concluded.

“No. Wait.” Klaus pulled the glass eye out of his military overshirt. “Your precious eye that you were so obsessed about. Exact match to his eyes.”

“Key word being eyes, not eye,” Five argued.

“She killed Peabody two days ago,” Diego pointed out. “In the original timeline, something could have happened to him a day later, and Hazel and Cha-Cha blew up that prosthetics lab, anyway. ”

“Plus, this was two extra days that Leonard didn’t have the opportunity to manipulate Vanya,” Allison added. “We were able to intervene and we’re helping her.”

“She’s right,” Diego said. 

“Hey, I have a crazy idea,” Klaus suggested, looking at Vanya. “Why don’t you test out your violin now?”

“You’re right,” Luther said. “It’s crazy.”

“Luther, _ shut up! _” Allison snapped. “Go back to your rave bunny that you screwed last night.”

Luther stared at Allison, and then at Klaus. “Don’t look at me,” Klaus said, while Five and Vanya exchanged puzzled glances.

“I saw you come in last night,” Allison said bitterly.

“Guys! Guys! Guys!” Diego interrupted. “None of this is helping. We’re supposed to be working _ together _. All of us.” And he looked at Vanya. “And you should test it.” He turned to Luther. “So, looks like that’s another three-to-two vote.”

“Okay, okay,” Five caved in. “But you shouldn’t test it in here. We don’t need the Academy to come crumbling down.”

“I’ll go to the park,” Vanya said. “It’s close and an open area. I think after last night I’m learning to control my emotions better to where I can stop myself if something seems off.”

“I’m coming with you!” Klaus declared, and Allison and Diego said the same.

Just then there was a knock at the front door. Allison went to respond. She opened it, to Diego's horror, to Beaman and Rodriguez. “Shit,” he muttered.

Beaman looked over Allison's shoulder to Diego. “Relax, Hargreeves. We’re not here to arrest you.”

Diego stood up and walked over to them, suspiciously. “Why not?”

“Charges against you have been dropped,” Beaman said.

“What? How?”

“Well, two guns were anonymously turned into police,” Beaman said. “One of them was used on Patch. Fingerprints on both guns not only match other sets we found in the motel room, but they contain the same 1960s casings that were used in the other crime scenes that you tried to investigate on your own.”

“Uh, also,” Rodriguez added. “Yesterday someone reported an abandoned van across the prosthetics lab. They called the police suspicious of writing on the windshield, 'your brother says hi.' Wheeler investigated that one and found a matchbook with the address of the motel where Patch was killed. Your brother’s fingerprints were on the air vent. We put two-and-two together that the perps kidnapped your brother, and that Patch found the note and went there to investigate.”

Diego nodded sadly. “She went there on her own, because I told her to do things my way for once. She tried calling me, but I didn’t get the message in time. This was still my fault, even if I didn’t kill her.”

Overhearing this, Five felt a twinge of guilt. Had he not disappeared himself, Diego would have gotten her message in time to provide backup, and possibly avoided any tragedy.

“No,” Beaman objected. “Remember what I told you. She knew you cared about helping people as much as she did. Your brother was in danger and she knew she needed to help.”

“Uh, speaking of your brother,” Rodriguez interrupted, “we do have another issue concerning theft and damage of an ice cream truck and driving without a license.”

“Ohhhh, shit,” Klaus muttered as he stood up and walked over to Diego.

Diego exchanged worried glances with Klaus, and then faced his friends. “Look, I made him do it-”

“You can’t _ make _ me do anything, dear brother.”

Diego lightly smacked Klaus on the back of the head. “Shut _ up, _” he hissed before turning back to the cops. “What he means is, this was my idea. And I was in the truck with him. So, if he goes down, I should, too.”

“Your fingerprints weren’t in the truck,” Beaman said.

“I was wearing my gloves,” Diego pointed out.

“Yeah, we kind of figured that,” Beaman said. “There was also a call about gunshots at the motel from where the truck was stolen in the first place. The responding officers at _ that _ scene saw your car shot out; and, of course, it had the same bullet casings, which Rodriguez and I had just learned the same time we received the guns. We figured you used the truck to follow them. But Diego, why didn’t you drive?”

“Because I was watching my tracking-device monitor, and I also took a hit in the arm in the shootout; that’s why I was wearing that sling when you arrested me. But it could have been worse.” Diego then looked again at Klaus. “My original plan was to bust into the killers’ motel room and kill them both. Klaus wanted to help; I told him to wait in the car. He didn’t listen and pulled me to safety when shit went down. He saved both of our lives.”

Klaus smiled weakly, while in the living room the other siblings stared in amazement. “Jesus, what alien life-form invaded Klaus’ brain?” Five muttered. 

“We understand that you went after someone who killed one of us,” Beaman said to Diego. “Unfortunately, the owner of the ice cream truck isn’t so forgiving. He wants to press charges.” He looked at Klaus. “The department actually has a warrant out for your arrest.”

“Shit,” Klaus bent forward, face down, putting his hands on his knees.

Diego slapped a hand on Klaus’ shoulder. “Then arrest me, too. We both stole it. And put us in the same damn cell. Last time he was in jail he got the shit beat out of him.”

“I said there's an active warrant. I didn’t say that we’re going to arrest you. For now, we’re just going to say we couldn’t locate you. But this will need to be taken care of.”

Diego breathed a sigh of relief before saying, “Look, I can’t say much, but besides losing our so-called dad, my family’s been through a ton of other shit this week. My sister’s concert is tonight, and we’re finally starting to unite as a family. If you give us the weekend, Klaus and I will come to the station on Monday. Just, please, if you have to arrest us, please put us in a cell together.”

Beaman and Rodriguez exchanged glances. “Just be sure you show up Monday morning,” Beaman said.

Rodriguez held out his hand to Diego. “And no hard feelings, okay?” Diego shook it, and the two left.

Diego and Klaus returned to the living room, where four sets of eyes stared at them. “What?” Klaus grinned.

“We totally underestimated you,” Five looked amazed.

Luther nodded. “Guess you’re not so useless after all.”

Klaus laughed. “If that’s your version of an apology, I’ll take it, Numero Uno.”

“I owe you an apology, too,” Diego said. “Not only for getting you in this mess, but also for calling you an idiot after you saved my life.”

“Oh, it’s okay, big guy,” Klaus smiled at his brother. “I know I’m fifty shades of awesome.”

“Don’t push it, Number Four.” Then he turned to Five. “So. Talk.”

Five knew what Diego meant. “Hazel showed up yesterday afternoon while you were upstairs with Klaus. He resigned from the Temps Commission-”

“Temps _ what? _” Allison exclaimed. 

Five sighed, “My former employer, and now his. Anyway, he came here to volunteer to help stop the apocalypse. I told him it had already been stopped, or at least I thought so then. Anyway, he gave me the gun to clear your name. And it was Cha-Cha who killed Detective Patch.”

“I don’t care,” Diego growled. “He was still there that night. _ And _ he was the one who first kidnapped Klaus, and he helped torture Klaus. Don’t forget that they also shot up the house.”

“And shut down Mom,” Allison said.

Diego and Klaus dared not make eye contact with each other. Neither of them wanted the others to know the truth, nor to drop any hints accordingly. That was the one secret the brothers would keep between each other.

“Diego, your girlfriend Patch,” Five said, “What did you like about her?”

Diego shrugged. “A lot of things. Cute butt. Nice legs.”

  
Five sighed. “Anything a little more profound than that?”

Diego nodded. “She believed in people. No matter how much shit and filth she saw on the streets, she always saw the good inside.”

  
“Well, I'm sure she’d be proud to know that you’re killing Hazel and Cha-Cha as a way to honor her memory.”

Instead of admitting Five was right, Diego said, “Come on, Vanya, guys. Let’s head to the park.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vanya, Klaus, Allison and Diego started out on the street heading toward the park. It was a beautiful day. They rounded the first corner, and the next. And then Klaus froze.

He was facing the cemetery. And in the damn middle in plain view was _ that fucking mausoleum! _

The others stopped as well. “Shit! I forgot.” Diego exclaimed. He and Mom had passed it going to and from the park. He hadn’t yet known about Klaus’ “training” and had forgotten that the cemetery was on the way.

Klaus’ eyes were fixated on the mausoleum. Because all he saw and heard were ghosts. Dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of ghosts. All as gruesome as he remembered them. All screaming his name.

“Klaus?” Diego rushed to Klaus and put his hands on his brother’s shoulders. He was hyperventilating and had a glazed look in his eyes. “Klaus, I need you to focus, okay?”

“_ No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!!!! _” Klaus dropped to his knees and covered his hands over his ears.

“Shit!” Diego saw that they were attracting the attention of passersby. “I gotta get him home,” he said to the sisters. “If someone calls the cops he’ll get arrested for sure. You two go ahead.” He scooped up Klaus, still hysterically screaming, and rushed off.

“Jesus,” Vanya was still shaking from that scene. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

“Me neither,” Allison said. “Are you okay?”

Vanya nodded. The two rounded the third corner and were at the park. Vanya took out her violin, closed drew a deep breath, and began playing.

The music resonated through her as it did during her audition. She didn’t know how long she played, but when she was done, she heard applause. A small crowd had gathered.

“Thank you,” Vanya smiled, embarrassed.

“Encore!” several people yelled.

“I can’t,” Vanya looked at Allison. “We need to get back home and check on our brother.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego plowed through the front doors and quickly sat Klaus down on the couch. He then knelt on the floor facing Klaus. He put his hands on Klaus’, in which his fingernails were digging into his ears, causing them to bleed. Diego tried to pry them off.

“_ No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!!! It’s too loud! They’re all too loud! _”

“What the hell?” Luther said. He and Five were standing in the doorway.

Diego ignored them and continued working on Klaus’ fingers. Klaus’ eyes were shut tight and tears were streaming down his face.

“Come on, buddy.” Diego tried to sound a hell of a lot calmer than he felt. 

“_ No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!!!! _”

“You passed the cemetery,” Five guessed.

“Shut _ up! _” Diego hissed. “You’re not helping. Leave us alone.” He managed to pry Klaus’ fingers loose and took Klaus’ hands in his. “Klaus. Klaus. Breathe, okay? Breathe.”

“_ It's too loud! It’s too loud! It’s too loud! _ ” Klaus was shaking violently. 

This went on for several minutes, Klaus screaming hysterically as Diego tried unsuccessfully to calm him down. How was anyone going to be able to help Klaus through these episodes? Would these get worse as Klaus’ sobriety continued? Worse yet, would this be too much for Klaus and drive him back to drugs? Diego felt helpless. 

The front doors opened and Vanya and Allison rushed past Luther and Five, still standing in the living room doorway, to the scene before them.

Allison looked at Vanya. “Do it.”

Vanya opened her case, pulled out her violin, closed her eyes and started playing, focusing on her music and not her brother’s hysteria. The energy emitted from her violin throughout the room.

Klaus looked up, hands still in Diego’s, as he became mesmerized by the music. He saw the many, many ghosts start to fade. Diego quickly got up off the floor and sat on the couch with Klaus, stroking his brother's hair as Klaus lay his head on Diego's shoulder. Allison sat on Klaus’ other side and rubbed his arm. As Vanya continued, Klaus soon drifted off to sleep.

She stopped playing, and everyone looked at Klaus, having gone from paranoia to resting peacefully within minutes.

Five turned to Vanya. “So, what time is your concert tonight? I need to find something more appropriate to wear than this damn Academy uniform.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klaus woke up later that afternoon in his room. He heard Vanya practicing in her bedroom with the door closed. Ben was sitting next to him, and Diego was again in the recliner at the foot of Klaus’ bed. “Hey,” Klaus smiled at both of them.

“Hey, bro,” Diego responded. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” he said. “Ben’s here, by the way.”

Ben looked confused.

“Oh, yeah,” he said to Ben. “I kind of may have told Diego about you.”

“Well, it’s about time,” Ben replied, smiling.

Diego observed Klaus talking into thin air. “Hey, Ben,” Diego felt weird copying this. “Uh, we all miss you.”

“Ben says he misses being able to talk to you all, too.”

“Thanks for looking after Klaus all of these years,” Diego said.

Klaus paused, and then rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck you, dear ghost brother of mine.”

“What did he say?” Diego grinned. “Be honest.”

Klaus sighed, but smiled. “He’s glad not to be my babysitter any longer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Hazel paid Five a visit a day earlier than in canon, but because there was no murder in Jackpine Cove, he and Agnes were not stuck in traffic. 
> 
> I’m in the process of rewriting the next chapter, so it may take me a few days to update this story. Thanks for the comments and feedback! 💖


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so it turns out that I didn’t have to do as much rewriting on this as I had thought. So, here you go. It’s the night of the concert! And, of course, since this is only the sixth chapter of thirteen, there is obviously more material to come.
> 
> Thank you all for the lovely comments! I’m glad that I finally joined ao3. 💖💖💖

Vanya needed to be at the theater at seven, an hour before the concert. Diego dropped her off since, of course, Allison was busy with Klaus primping and making sure they looked as pretty as possible for this event.

"Aren’t you going to change?" Allison stared him down at his bedroom door after he returned.

Diego was, of course, wearing his harness. It was as vital to him as was oxygen. "What?! I have my jacket."

"You are _ not _ wearing that denim jacket. And please don’t tell me that those clodhoppers are the only footwear that you own."

"Then I won’t."

A clicking of heels was heard in the hallway until Klaus - clad in a short-sleeved glittery dark-gray sweater, his signature leather pants and kitten-heeled, pointy-toed black boots - appeared at the doorway. "Fear not, lovely big sis." He tossed Diego a large Gimble Brothers shopping bag.

Diego looked at the tissue wrappings inside the bag. "What the hell is this?"

"Oh, just a couple of things I picked up for you while Five and I were shopping for a new suit for him a little bit ago."

"'Picked up'?" Allison inquired suspiciously. 

"_ I am not wearing a fucking suit! _" Diego exclaimed. 

"Would you two relax?" Klaus' smile was a mixture of sweetness and snarkiness. "Pogo gave us the money. And did I say I got _ you _ a suit? Just take a look!"

Diego unwrapped a dark sepia leather blazer and opened a box of matching-colored shoes. "Well, I guess this isn’t too bad. Thanks, bro."

"What's with all the lollygagging?" Five appeared in his navy-blue three-piece suit after Diego had changed shoes and applied the jacket. "Wow, you clean up nicely," Five said to him.

"Shut up."

"Well, Delores must be pretty impressed with how you look, too," Allison said nicely. The siblings had tried to respect Five's "relationship" with the mannequin, Five's companion throughout his forty-five years in the apocalypse. 

"Oh, well, she’s not here anymore," Five said a little somberly. "She’s back with her friends."

The other three got the message. She was now back among the other mannequins at Gimble Brothers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The siblings had front-row seats. Luther had to crouch down as best as possible in his aisle seat so to not obstruct the view of the person behind him. Next to Luther was Five, then Allison, then Klaus, and then Diego.

The score containing Vanya's debut solo was first. She played beautifully and flawlessly, blending in perfectly with the orchestra when they would join in. Klaus rested his head on Allison's shoulder, feeling a combination of peace and elation. Allison beamed with pride at her baby sister, and Luther and Five were quite impressed. Even Diego, who definitely preferred Metallica over Mozart, was intrigued by the melody; damn it, the hell if he would ever become cultured.

They broke for intermission. Most of the patrons were either out in the lobby or outdoors, while the five siblings remained in their seats, still in awe of what they had witnessed. They were quickly snapped back to reality when they heard a loud commotion in the lobby. They turned to find about a couple dozen masked men storm the theater and open rapid fire.

"_ TAKE COVER! _" Luther ordered his siblings.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vanya and her fellow players heard the gunfire from the green room. Everyone else promptly split out the backstage door. Vanya stayed, cowering, shaking, knowing whoever it was had come to kill her siblings. In the few seconds this was happening, Vanya started trembling. As she did, so did the building. _ Shit. _ She couldn’t make herself react. If the gunmen didn’t kill her family, she would by sending the building crumbling. She forced herself to breathe steadily. The shaking lessened. She had to do something. They were her family. Then she realized, _ Those gunmen won’t hurt me. They want me to survive so that I will cause the apocalypse. _ She quickly grabbed her violin and started playing it, allowing the music, rather than the gunshots, to resonate in her head. The building stopped shaking as Vanya continued playing the violin as she walked down the hallway toward the auditorium.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Klaus ducked, hands over his ears at the gunfire that reminded him of the front lines. Diego took out a couple of the gunmen with his knives before turning to Five. "Do you know these guys?"

"Yeah. We’re screwed," Five said before jumping on the back of one of them and making him turn and shoot two others.

Klaus suddenly felt a weird sensation as his hands shook. He took them off his ears and saw that they were glowing bright blue. _ What the fuck? _

Ben appeared, although not like he normally would to Klaus. Instead, Ben was also bright blue, as he screamed and the monstrous tentacles began tearing the gunmen apart, one by one.

"Oh, my God. Ben!" Luther exclaimed as he and the others looked in shock at the sight of the brother they had lost thirteen years ago. Vanya walked in, and she stopped playing as she, too, watched the scene.

Then Cha-Cha marched in from backstage, a cold stare on her face. Diego emitted a battle cry as he charged toward her and the two fought backstage.

Ben successfully took out all of the gunmen, and then disappeared, except to Klaus. Luther, Allison, Five and Vanya stared dumbfounded at Klaus, who shrugged. "News to me."

Backstage, Diego managed to wrap his hands around Cha-Cha's neck and proceeded to choke her. She looked at him with pleading eyes. His anger came to the surface, and he gripped her neck even tighter. He thought of Patch.

Then Five's words came back to him. _ I’m sure she’d be glad to know that you’re killing Hazel and Cha-Cha as a way to honor her memory _.

And he dropped her, and walked away.

Cha-Cha didn’t walk away. Instead, she cynically sauntered back into the theater, about ten yards from the others, and drew her gun.

Vanya flicked her violin bow and sent Cha-Cha flying against the wall, but it didn’t kill her. It did knock the gun out of her hand, though. With another flick of the bow, Vanya sent the gun sliding across the theater floor.

Then Vanya ran onstage and dropped her bow. As Cha-Cha straggled back up, Vanya released a bright energy tendril from her chest and lifted Cha-Cha into the air. The others looked on in shock as Vanya's black tuxedo suit, black boots and brown eyes all turned white.

The other siblings cautiously joined Vanya onstage as they watched Cha-Cha waving her arms in the air, as the energy slowly began draining from her.

Klaus stepped forward. "How does it feel now, bitch? How does it feel to be tortured? Afraid you’re gonna die? Only difference is, you _ will _ die! Oh, Zoya Popova, the tow truck guy, and _ all _ of your victims are gonna have a field day with you!" 

"And so will Eudora Patch," Diego said with a coldness Klaus had never seen.

"No…regrets," Cha-Cha managed to spit out.

Without taking her own cold gaze off Cha-Cha, Vanya ordered, "Klaus. Get Ben."

Klaus lifted his hands into fists, held his breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and tried…and tried…and tried. Nothing.

"_ DO IT NOW!!! _" There was a sharp jolt simultaneous to Vanya's command. A chunk of ceiling fell from the other side of the auditorium. 

That did it. Klaus' hands glowed once again and Ben tore Cha-Cha in half.

Vanya then collapsed. The others rushed to her. Allison checked her pulse. "She’s alive," she tearfully said to the others.

"We need to get out of here before the police arrive." Luther picked up Vanya, while Klaus grabbed her violin and bow, and they rushed out the back entrance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was quiet the entire car ride home. Vanya lay across Allison, Klaus and Diego in the back seat. Allison tearfully stroked her hair, while Klaus rubbed the back of Allison's neck and held Vanya's hand with his other. Diego had his hand on Vanya's knee while looking broodily out the window. In front, Luther drove as Five stared blankly ahead.

They rushed through the mansion to the infirmary while Five got Mom. She looked Vanya over and stroked her hair. "She’ll be fine, eventually. She just needs rest."

So Luther carried Vanya to her room. They all sat around and watched as her clothing faded back to black.

Ten minutes later she opened her eyes. They were brown again.

"Vanya?" Allison grabbed Vanya's hand and stroked her hair.

"Hey," she smiled weakly.

"Are you okay?" Klaus sat at the foot of the bed and rubbed her knee.

"I think so," she whispered. "What about you all?"

Five nodded and smiled. "I think it’s now safe to say that there’s not going to be an apocalypse."

Allison crawled into bed with Vanya and pulled the covers over them both. They immediately fell asleep as the others quietly left the room. Without another word Five and Luther separately retreated to their own rooms. Diego started toward his when Klaus grabbed his arm and said, "Wait." Diego turned to face him.

Klaus warmly smiled. "There’s someone who wants to talk to you."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Five minutes later they were in Klaus' room. Klaus opted first to change back into his military top, and then at Klaus' request Diego had to punch him in the groin again. He hated to do it but they both knew that stress apparently triggered this new power. But it worked because Eudora appeared in blue form to Diego. As Klaus sat cross-legged on one of his many large throw pillows with eyes closed, Diego stood before his first true love.

"Hey there, Hargreeves." Eudora looked just as she did the last time they had spoken, with the exception of the blood stain on her abdomen.

"Hey, Eudora," Diego smiled back at her, swallowing the lump in his throat. 

"You did good there tonight," she said warmly. "I watched everything that happened."

"Eudora, I-" Diego paused. "I-I'm s-s-sorry that I let you d-down. I mean, that n-n-night-" 

Eudora reached out and wiped away the single tear that rolled down his face. The touch was both soothing and magical, the latter being different from anything he had ever experienced throughout their entire turbulent relationship.

"Diego, you didn’t let me down," she said.

"I t-t-told you to do things m-my way, and then I didn’t get to you in t-t-t-time." Another tear slowly fell.

"Diego, I didn’t go there because you told me," Eudora said gently. "I went there because I knew how important your family is to you, even if you couldn’t admit it then. I realize now that you were looking for a different brother at the time you talked to me, but you would have done just as much for any of your family as you have for the brother I found."

"B-but you didn’t have to d-d-d-d-die for this," Diego pleaded.

"Many times life is unfair," she said softly. "We each saw it every day in what each of us did. But like you said about me, you see the good in people. You're helping all of your family, even the two you resented the most. And I wouldn’t even be here talking to you right now if you hadn’t helped your brother get clean; I know how much you’ve wanted that for him. I am proud of you. More proud than I have ever been of anyone in my life."

The tears spilled down Diego's face as Eudora continued:

"Please, don’t stop what you’re doing now. Never give up on your family. Even Luther."

Diego nodded, heaving sobs. "I won’t."

Eudora put her hand back on his face. Then she gave him a kiss on his lips. "I have always loved you."

"I love you, too," Diego tearfully said.

She smiled once more. Then she slowly faded.

Diego stood motionless for another moment. And then the floodgates opened. He dropped to his knees, covered his face and began sobbing uncontrollably.

Klaus opened his eyes and got up from his pillow. He knelt down next to Diego and embraced him, rocking him gently. "It’s okay. Let it go," Klaus repeated softly as his own tears began flowing.

"I love you, brother."

Klaus closed his eyes. "I love you too," he whispered, grateful to finally be able to give back to the brother he had looked up to his entire life.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After a long while, the two even-numbered brothers sat against Klaus' makeshift pillow chairs talking of some of their better memories with their respective significant others. When their conversation gradually decreased, Klaus suggested seeing what was on TV and turned on his set atop his bookshelf. Diego knew that neither of them wanted to be alone tonight.

"Ugh, not horror," Klaus quickly switched the channel from a scene of a hand emerging from a gravesite. That was when a thought occurred to Diego, something that made him feel uneasy and worrisome for his brother.

"Oh, look! Golden Girls! You don’t mind, do you?"

Normally Diego would have made a smartass remark. Instead he said, "After what you just did for me, whatever you want." That was a partial truth. Of course, he deserved it; but now Diego had a greater concern.

Klaus crawled into bed while Diego lined up two additional pillows to the makeshift chair and grabbed the throw from the recliner. Klaus soon fell asleep, so Diego turned off the TV and the lights. It took Diego a little while longer to drift off to sleep himself, as he tried to think of how to deal with this possible new complication.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needless to say, we know what this "new complication" is. But Klaus doesn’t yet know.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of past suicide attempts and sexual abuse.

Everyone slept in until late morning the next day. Once Diego heard rustling in the hallway, he whispered, "Klaus, you awake?"

"Mmm-hmm," Klaus opened his eyes and stirred to face Diego.

"We need to have a family meeting," Diego said abruptly.

"Um…okay?" Klaus was confused. "Why?"

"Just get the others and meet me in the lounge. Make sure you bring Ben, too. I’m gonna have Mom make us breakfast." 

Fifteen minutes later they were in the lounge having their meal; Diego wanted to make sure everyone ate well before he would start the discussion. Luther was first to finish, of course, and impatiently demanded to know what this was about. Diego waited until at least Klaus was done before he stood among the others.

"So, what’s with this lovely little Saturday morning pow-wow, dear brother?" Klaus inquired.

"This has to do with you, Klaus," Diego said. "Something occurred to me last night about your new power, making ghosts corporeal."

"Oh? Do tell," Klaus said. 

"Well, I’m grateful that we kind of have Ben back, but-"

"He says thank you," Klaus paused. Then he continued, "He looks forward to reconnecting with all you wonderful people, too."

"Same goes for me, Ben," Diego awkwardly spoke into the air, and the others agreed. "The thing is, this seems to only happen during heated situations. We were in danger when you first brought him out, and Vanya had to scare you into doing it again-"

"And then there’s what happened yesterday," Five jumped in, quickly figuring it out, "when you saw the mausoleum. You freaked out really badly. If that were to happen again, and stress triggers this new power-"

The room grew silent as it dawned on Klaus and the others what Diego and Five were saying. "Oh, shit. I could bring any ghost to life if it scares me. Any number of them at once."

"Yeah, we’ve got a much bigger problem that we need to figure out how to help with you," Diego said.

The others sat in silence. With all of the intensity of the night before and subsequent recovery, no one else had considered this.

"This could be potentially dangerous for all of us," Luther pointed out. "We don’t know what we could be dealing with. I mean, we could suddenly have dozens of ghosts against us at once."

Diego wanted to yell at Luther for always bringing up the negative, especially with Klaus, but he knew Luther was right.

"Ben says there’s nothing he could do for us," Klaus said in a shaky voice.

"He can’t kill what’s already dead," Five realized. "For that matter, none of us can."

"Shit," Klaus put his head in his hands. Sitting next to him, Vanya scooted over and rubbed his back.

"Okay, enough about the problem," Diego ordered. "We need to figure out a solution."

Klaus' head shot back up. "The solution is for me to go back to drugs. No chance of me hurting-"

"That is  _ not _ a solution!" Diego pounded his fist on the table, startling everyone.

"Okay, not what I was doing before, but maybe the meds Vanya was taking!" Klaus cried, desperate to come up with anything that would keep him from harming his family. 

Vanya was still rubbing Klaus' back. "Klaus, those pills turned me into an emotionless zombie."

"Yeah, plus, you start with that and the next thing you know, you  _ will _ be back on the hard stuff," Diego pointed out. "You know they’ve told you that in rehab."

"Klaus," Vanya said softly. "My violin. Remember? That got you out of it almost immediately."

"That’s all well and good when Vanya and her violin are immediately available," Five said, "But Vanya can’t be around you twenty-four/seven, and we’re not always going to be able to bypass every graveyard while on the road. Plus, you said you had something like thirty of Hazel and Cha-Cha's victims in their motel room at once. This could happen here at home, or anywhere. We’ll do what we can to help you, but we’re also going to have to figure out what you can do when no one else is around."

"And what exactly is your solution, Number Five?" Klaus retorted. "Come on, you’re the genius, right? Or at least that is what you always keep reminding us! All your quantum theory shit or whatever?! So, what words of infinite wisdom do you have for us, little old man?"

Five stared blankly. "I don’t know," he admitted.

Klaus put his head back in his hands. "I should've just stayed dead that day."

"What are you-"

Before Luther could continue, Diego smacked Klaus in the back of the head. " _ Don’t  _ you  _ dare _ talk like that again!"

Klaus shot out of his seat and faced Diego. "Why do you always have to hit me, asshole?!"

Then Klaus' hands glowed; Ben appeared to all, and he also smacked Klaus. "Do you know how many times I had to watch you in an ambulance flatlining and nearly dying of an overdose?!" Then he was gone to the others again.

"Well, I’m sorry, okay?!" Klaus teared up. "But I’m scared of myself! Scared of hurting you all! After all of these years I finally had hope for myself! I don’t want to live like this if it means I’m just going to cause harm…." His voice trailed off as the tears fell.

Diego grabbed Klaus by his shoulders. "Hey, hey, hey. Calm down, bro. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out." He gently led Klaus back to his seat and sat down next to him, rubbing the back of his neck as Klaus again put his head back into his hands.

Other than Klaus' sobbing, the room was quiet, as everyone seemed at a loss for words as to what could be done.

"Let me try something," Allison stood up and walked over to Vanya. "May I sit here, please?"

Vanya stood up and let Allison take her seat. "Look at me, Klaus."

He turned to face her, and she took his hands.

"I heard a rumor that you can only manifest and make corporeal the ghosts that you  _ want _ to manifest and make corporeal."

The others watched in amazement as the white cloud emitted from Allisons mouth to Klaus' eyes as they glossed over. He sat in a daze for a few more seconds after his eyes returned to their green color.

"What just happened?"

"Nothing, Klaus," Diego said quietly. "Let’s go for a ride, okay? Vanya, get your violin and come with us."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Five minutes later Diego, Klaus and Vanya were parked about fifty yards from the cemetery. "You see anything, Klaus?"

Klaus looked at the mausoleum, and then the side-view mirror. "Just Ben, sitting next to Vanya in the back seat, and…" Klaus teared up and smiled brightly, "Dave."

"Let’s get you home so you can spend time with him," Diego said happily. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was late afternoon as Allison packed her suitcase in her bedroom. Klaus had taken Vanya shopping at the latter's request for a makeover, and Diego had left to explain his absence to his boss at the gym and see whether he still had a job and a place to live. Klaus and Vanya had invited Allison to their shopping spree, but she opted not to be seen out in public for fear of being mobbed by fans. She needed to get her packing out of the way, anyway; she had an early morning flight scheduled since Monday morning was her next court-appointed counseling session, and she still needed to discuss something with Diego before she left. Plus, she knew she would likely have to confront Luther, at least at some point if not today.

"Allison?"

Luther startled her from the doorway. Speak of the devil.

"Can we talk?" He asked cautiously. 

"Sure," Allison said flatly. She closed her suitcase and sat cross-legged on the middle of her bed.

Luther came in and stood awkwardly above her. "Uh, that was really cool. Y'know, what you did for Klaus. Especially after you said you weren’t going to use your power any longer."

Allison nodded. "I figured it acceptable to do it in this case, and necessary. Helping someone else and especially protecting our family is much different from using it for my own personal gain. Just like whenever we were on a mission."

Luther nodded back. "Uh, and…I’m sorry you had to see that. I mean, the other night…."

Allison said nothing. Despite knowing they would eventually have this conversation but she had yet to prepare herself on how she would respond. Too much had happened overall. So she waited for him to continue.

"I mean, yeah, I was at a rave," Luther stammered. "I’d never been to a rave before - they’re actually pretty amazing." He stopped himself. "And, yeah, you know I was already really drunk, and I did get pills there, too. I- I was really dumb to do that."

"Yeah, you were," Allison said bluntly.

"I mean, I just felt so lost and alone. I had just found out that Dad-"

"I know, Dad sent you up to the moon for nothing," Allison jumped in. "Look, I understand you’re dealing with Dad lying to you when you looked up to him your entire life. I do want to help you with this. But you need to stop acting like you’re the only one who’s been hurt. Everyone else has had their shit to deal with, not just Vanya and Klaus. Five spent forty-five years in a wasteland and saw all of us dead. Diego just lost someone close to him, too. Everyone is working through what they need to while helping each other. I think that even Five is starting to come around; he actually spent yesterday afternoon with Klaus shopping for a suit and other clothing so that he no longer needs to wear those uniforms. And they didn’t kill each other in the process. You’re complaining about feeling lost and alone when you’re the one pushing everyone else away while still trying to exert the authority that you think you have."

"I know," Luther sighed. "I’m the one who is useless."

"No, Luther," she argued. "You still have your superpower. We all have ours. But you’ve based your whole identity on being Number One. You need to learn who you are as a whole person. All of us need to do so for ourselves. Our superpowers are a part of who we are, but they’re only  _ part _ of it; there is so much more to each of us as human beings that we need to learn about ourselves. And I’m just as guilty. I’ve based my identity on my fame, and my accomplishments, as well as my ability to rumor others."

Luther paused. "Can I ask you something?"

Allison prepared herself, knowing what he might inquire. "Sure."

"Did you ever do this to me?"

Allison hesitated, fearing how Luther might react. But then he continued:

"Look, it’s okay. I’m not going to do anything stupid. When Klaus talked of going back to drugs, I realized how stupid I was the other night. I could have gotten the shit beaten out of me. I won’t be angry if that was what you did."

Allison nodded slowly. "A few times from when we were thirteen until we left. I’m sorry, Luther."

Luther nodded, too. "It’s okay. A part of myself had always wondered."

"We’re always going to be family, Luther," Allison reminded him. "You’re always going to be in my life. But as family. And we  _ all _ need to stick together."

Luther sighed. "You’re right." He looked at her one more time. "Well, I’ll let you get back to packing."

"Are you sure you’re going to be okay?" Allison asked, concerned.

Luther nodded. "Yes, Allison. I promise."

Luther turned and left Allison's room, passing Diego in the hallway as he continued to his own room.

Diego glanced at the direction of Luther's room and then stood under Allison's doorway. "Is everything okay?"

Allison nodded. "He knows."

"How’d he take it?"

"Surprisingly well," she told Diego. "I think he’s finally starting to come around at least. How did things go with you?"

"Just as I expected," Diego sighed. "Al was gracious enough to give me a week to pack my things. I’m gonna take care of it all tomorrow, in case Klaus and I have to go to jail on Monday."

"Hey, listen. Speaking of him, I need to talk to you. Can you close the door, please?"

"Sure," Diego said, concerned. He did, and then he grabbed the chair from Allison's vanity and seated himself next to her bed. "What’s up?"

"How much of Dad’s journal did you read?" Allison began. "Regarding Klaus, I mean."

"I read all of the mausoleum entries. I didn’t read past the last one when we were thirteen. I was too pissed off. Why?"

Allison took a breath before going on. "Did Klaus ever say anything about attempting suicide?"

Diego jerked back, eyes widening. "Uh, no."

"There’s several entries from when we were sixteen and seventeen years old. Mom had to pump his stomach or give him charcoal to save him."

Diego paused for a moment, taking this in. "Are you sure these weren’t accidental overdoses?"

Allison shook her head. "I won’t go into detail; it’s all in there if you want to read it. But it was obvious these were intentional."

Diego leaned back in Allison's chair. "Shit." He paused for a moment to ponder further. "I guess it really doesn’t surprise me. I can’t even count how many times he went to the hospital over the years. I always wondered if any of those times were on purpose."

"That and, Ben bringing it up this morning right after Klaus made that remark about staying dead; Vanya told me about that, by the way. For the record, I think no less of her, either."

"That’s good." Diego then got back to the immediate subject. "To be honest, he really scared the shit out of me on Tuesday, when he first got back from 'Nam." Diego went on to explain Klaus' silence during the car ride and his explosive rage at the veterans' bar, both completely uncharacteristic of how anyone had ever seen him. Diego further detailed Klaus' multiple attempts to pop pills in the car after that, and Diego resorting to hitting Klaus on the back of his head then, too. "I had to scream at him to get him to talk, but he did. Took me a second to get what he was saying, which he used as an opportunity to get one pill in; but that was the last time he took anything. Well, other than nursing the bottle of vodka he’d brought along. But I got through to him, so I really didn’t care. Before then, though, I wondered whether he was just trying to numb himself, or if he wanted to check out. I mean, I know he wouldn’t have done that in front of me, but later on at night could've been a different story."

"Shit," Allison said. "I’m so glad that you were there for him."

"Same here. Especially since I almost didn’t give him a ride, and I almost left after I’d dropped him off at the bar. I was so hell-bent on going after Hazel and Cha-Cha. But I knew something was off when I first saw him here, and then I was more worried after he left the car. I’m just glad I went after him at the bar. Those Marines would’ve ripped him to shreds. But he probably wanted that then."

Allison nodded. There was a brief pause before she said, "This really isn’t my business to know details, but can I ask if Klaus ever talked about anything he went through when he was out on his own after leaving the Academy?" 

Diego took a breath before responding. "Klaus never said anything about all of the shit he had to deal with. I know that a few of my buddies on the streets had to bring him to me when he had the shit beat out of him, and I’ve seen more than enough shit on the streets myself to know what must’ve been done to him. Especially considering who he is; they’re fucking ruthless to people like him. And I don’t even wanna think of what they probably did to him any time he was in jail."

Just then a thought crossed Diego's mind, remembering Klaus' virgin-shaming of Luther during which Klaus had said he didn’t remember his own first time. Diego was too entertained to think about that statement then, but in hindsight he wondered if either Klaus' first time was that meaningless; or worse yet, he was not in the frame of mind to give consent.

"Diego, we can help Klaus with his powers, and the shit Dad and the war put him through," Allison said. "But, thankfully, none of us have had to deal with being hurt in the ways he did while out there. A counselor isn’t going to understand being locked in a mausoleum or time-travel, but they can help him with whatever trauma he encountered on the streets."

Diego nodded slowly. Then he asked, "What were Sir Reginald's reactions when Klaus made his attempts here?"

Allison looked at him sadly. "Same as the mausoleum accounts. Klaus was weak and Dad’s biggest disappointment."

Diego paused. Then he shot up from his seat, grabbed the chair and slammed it back onto the floor. "You know what, Allison?! Quit calling him Dad. A father doesn’t lock a kid in a mausoleum for hours on end or give no shit that he tried to kill himself! A father doesn’t pin one sister against the other just because he has no fucking clue how to teach a kid right from wrong. A parent doesn’t constantly make one kid think he’s better than anyone else. We were never his children; just a bunch of fucking little superheroes that he did whatever he could to torture and manipulate for his own personal gain! I was wrong to say and do what I did to Luther during the memorial, but I was right about Sir Reginald Hargreeves: he was a monster!" 

Before he and Allison could go further, they heard chattering in the hallway. Then a knock on Allison's door. "Allison, you here?" Vanya called out.

"Yeah, come in," Allison said as Diego returned the chair to her vanity.

Vanya, armed with several shopping bags, burst in with Klaus. "Allison, wait'll you see what all we got-" Then Vanya stopped, eyeing the serious expressions from both Allison and Diego. "Is everything okay?" She asked cautiously.

"Close the door, please," Diego said.

Vanya did, and then she placed her bags next to the vanity and sat down next to Allison on the bed while Klaus approached Diego, who stood at the foot of the bed. "What’s going on now, big guy?" Klaus flashed what looked like a forced grin.

Diego took a breath. "Klaus, Allison read the journal.  _ All _ of it. Including another bit of information that you never told me."

Klaus paused as he looked at Allison, and then back to Diego. From the bed, Vanya did the same. "Uh, what’s going on?" She asked cautiously. 

Klaus then eyed the door. Without missing a beat, Diego grabbed Klaus' shoulders. "I don’t think so, buddy. Sit your ass down."

Klaus plopped down defeatedly at the foot of Allison's bed. Diego sat down next to him.

"I didn’t want anyone to know," Klaus said quietly. 

Vanya watched him, and then looked back at Allison.

"Not all of his overdoses were accidental," Allison told her.

Vanya's gaze went from her sister back to her brother. "Klaus…?"

Klaus turned to face everyone. "I didn’t want you all to feel sorry for me, okay? I didn’t want you to feel obligated to coddle me just because you’d be afraid I’d check out if I didn’t. Or to think that I was just trying to get attention." His voice shook.

"Klaus…" Diego placed a hand back on his brother’s shoulder. "Do you honestly believe that after this week we would think that about you?"

Klaus slowly dropped his gaze and shook his head. "No, not now; but before. I mean, I don’t want to dredge up shit you’ve already apologized for, and I know you’ve done so much for me over the years, Diego; so has Ben, ghost and all. But I always thought of myself as nothing more than a burden to you, and that no one else gave a shit about me."

"Klaus…" Allison said in a tone of dread no one had ever heard before, "I’m so sorry. I’m not saying that out of pity-"

"I know, Allison," Klaus looked at her through watery eyes. "I know now. And I’ve made enough mistakes for several lifetimes. And all of you have proven to me how much you care. I don’t need to question that anymore."

"Okay, then," Diego said gently but firmly. "I’m gonna ask you some questions, then. And you need to promise me you’re going to tell me the truth, okay?"

"Okay."

Diego saw one more angle. "I want you to say that you promise."

Klaus sighed. "Okay, I promise that I will answer all of your questions truthfully." 

"Okay, then. First of all: how many of your trips to the ER weren’t from an accidental overdose?"

"A few," Klaus sighed. "I mean, I don’t know exactly how many. It’s not like I was keeping tabs on all of the shit I did, especially since there’s a lot I don’t remember in my life."

"I get it," Diego said. "Next question. The day you came back from the war and we were hanging out. I know that you wouldn’t try anything in front of someone else, but…?"

Klaus took another breath. "You’re right; in the car I just wanted to numb myself. And I didn’t have any type of plan or anything. That whole morning and afternoon was just a blur to me. And yeah, at that point I didn’t care if I lived or died. But after you said what you did, I realized I was being selfish to you. You had just lost Eudora then, too."

"And you helped me go after Hazel and Cha-Cha," Diego reminded him.

"Yeah," Klaus said. "Partially because of Eudora, and also because they tortured me. I mean, I know I’d said that killing them wouldn’t make you feel better, and I meant it; but I didn’t want you to go alone, and I guess part of myself wanted the satisfaction of seeing them go down, too. So, that was why I followed you out of the car, even though you didn’t want me to."

Diego nodded. "And if you had stayed, you would’ve been killed when they shot out the car. I don’t know whether I would have, too, or not; but I would have definitely lost you, after I’d just lost Eudora."

Klaus shot an angry glare at Diego, his eyes brimming with tears. "Yeah, think of how you would have felt," he retorted. "Then think of how I felt when you looked me in the eye and said ever so casually, 'If I don’t come out in two minutes, I’m probably dead.' After the love of my life had just died in my arms a few hours before!"

Diego felt as though he had been punched in the gut. He had forgotten about having made that remark. And that had only been a minute or two before Diego had called Klaus an idiot.  _ I’m the idiot, _ Diego opined to himself. "I never thought about that," he said quietly. "You’re right. I’m sorry."

"It’s okay. Really. I know a lot has changed since then. But it just needed to be said." Klaus wiped his eyes.

"May I interrupt?" Vanya asked timidly.

"Of course, Vanya," Diego said.

"Klaus…" she began, trying to choose her words so to not make Klaus think that anyone was trying to shove him off on someone else, nor that she and the others present in the room were ganging up on him. "I don’t know how to ask this, and I don’t want any details; I don’t think anyone here does, and I know you don’t want to rehash anything yourself-"

"Just get to the point, please," Klaus said wearily.

Vanya dropped her gaze. "Never mind. I’m sorry."

"No, say it. Since I’m already being dissected like a guinea pig, anyway."

"Klaus," Allison pleaded defeatedly. "We’re all trying to help you. We don’t mean for this to seem like an interrogation session." She placed her hand on the shoulder of Vanya whose own eyes were now brimming with tears. "We all just found out that you’ve made multiple suicide attempts throughout your life, on top of everything else we’ve just learned-"

"I know," Klaus said shakily. "I’m the family basket case. Well beyond that."

"Klaus," Diego said sharply. "Reginald Hargreeves put you through hell. I understand you taking responsibility for your own actions; we all are with ourselves, too. But please, try not to put yourself down so much, okay? Remember what all you’ve just done, okay?"

"Klaus, we all love you," Allison added. "And if the situation were reversed with any of us, you’d be just as concerned."

Tears poured down his face. Diego put a hand on his shoulder. Klaus sighed. "I know." Then he reached over and took Vanya's hand. "I’m sorry for snapping at you."

Vanya nodded and wiped her eyes. "It’s okay. I understand," she said as she worked to compose herself. Klaus felt horrible; she was the last person he would have wanted to hurt, not that he wanted to hurt anyone else any longer, either. Klaus gave her hand a tight squeeze before letting back go.

"I think what Vanya was trying to say," Diego said gently, "is that, without going too much into it…I know from the shit I’ve seen on the streets and from what some of my buddies have said, that you haven’t had it easy. It’s how it is in that world."

Klaus kept his gaze on the bedspread and nodded slowly.

"Klaus," Allison interjected. "We’ll all help you with your powers and your sobriety, just like we’re all helping Vanya, and each other. But regarding any type of abuse, we think you could benefit from talking with a professional about this. Someone who has much better experience in helping you to heal from this than any of us would know."

Klaus remained quiet as he nodded again, his eyes still fixated on the pattern of the spread.

"Klaus," Diego said. "Can you look up here, please?"

Klaus slowly raised his eyes to face his brother.

"Allison is right. We all love you. We just want you to be okay."

"I know." Klaus smiled at him through his tears, and then at the others. "I love you all, too. And thank you all for being here."

"What I never got to finish saying," Vanya interjected, "Is that I’ve been seeing a therapist off and on for years. I can give you her number sometime. I don’t think she’d have a problem seeing you, but if she were to see a conflict of interest because of my own past resentments against the family, or if there’s someone better qualified to address what you need to discuss, I believe in her confidence in her referral."

"Okay," he agreed. "Just give me a little time, okay? I promise I will get that number from you soon." Klaus wiped his eyes once more. "Now, can we  _ please _ quit being so serious? We still need to show Allison what all Vanya got today!"

And they did. Diego stuck around, too. Not because he gave a crap about girly fashion, but to be with his family, especially the two sisters whom less than a week ago he couldn’t stand.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After another while, there was a knock on the door. Allison opened it to Luther and Five, who suggested they all do something as a family. They headed to Griddy's, only to discover it was the latest establishment to fall victim to arson. One of the citizens present told them that the owner had left a note suddenly deciding to close it down and travel across the country, and he had figured that some disgruntled employee enraged at being abruptly laid off likely did this. However, Five told the other siblings afterward that Hazel's redemption was due to a "vested interest in a doughnut shop," and Diego and Klaus remembered that they had spotted Hazel there alone during Diego's stakeout. So he hooked up with a lady twice his age? Whatever; they were happy. This gave Five a little hope. Maybe by the time he might be ready for a living human relationship - which would at least take him twenty years, if ever - he could find someone physically older, but mentally close in age.

Therefore, they had dinner at a steakhouse and returned home before eight o'clock, and everyone soon retreated to their rooms. Klaus had just gotten settled in his when there was a knock at his door. "Come in," he called out.

Allison opened it. "Hey," she smiled.

"Hey, back," he beamed in return.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out in my room and paint my nails."

And Klaus did indeed paint Allison's fingernails and gave her a pedicure.

"Now it’s your turn," she offered.

Klaus hesitated as he lay across the middle of Allison's bed. "You know, I would really love that, but I don’t know what’s gonna happen to me on Monday. Even if Diego and I get put in the same cell then, if we’re convicted, I’m going to have a longer sentence because of my other charge of driving without a license, and it wouldn’t exactly be my first theft conviction, either."

"Well," Allison suggested, "First of all, Pogo will be on standby Monday, in case you both are arrested, so he can send Luther to post bail immediately. And, worst-case scenario, it would take a little time for you to be tried and convicted, and by then your nails would have grown and the polish would have worn off. But I kind of got the impression from seeing them, that Diego's police friends may be in the process of working out some sort of deal for you. "

"Yeah, but I still won’t know," Klaus said with a shaky voice. "Plus, this would be my first time in jail clean. I was always able to get loaded whenever I was locked up; it’s a lot easier to smuggle drugs than you think. If I end up there alone this time, I know I won’t stay clean. The things they do to me…." He trailed off as a tear fell.

Allison ran her fingers through his curls, unsure of how to respond. She couldn’t say she understood. Then she remembered something else and said, "Klaus, I can’t even imagine what you’ve gone through. I don’t want to just sit here and say everything will be all right, because to me, that would invalidate your feelings and the circumstances. I don’t know how much this might help, but Diego told me the other night that things have a way of working themselves out. And with everything else that’s happened, he’s been right so far. But I also understand if you don’t want to take the risk. Besides, I’ve already decided that I’m coming back next weekend, and by then you should hopefully have a better idea of what you might be facing. If you want it done then, we’ll do that. It’s entirely up to you, and I won’t push this any further."

Klaus nodded.

"I do need to get to bed, though," Allison said. "I need to be at the airport by six in the morning."

"Okay," Klaus started to get up.

"Wait," she said. "If you don’t mind waking up at five, you’re welcome to stay."

Klaus smiled and jumped to the other side of the bed. He grabbed the pillow and closed his eyes.

Allison stroked Klaus' hair once more. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Klaus murmured, and he promptly fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, although in canon Diego helped Klaus after Klaus' return, and although 01x05 is my favorite episode in the first season, I did take issue with Diego's other comment that Klaus brought to his attention in this chapter. (That and, of course, Diego calling Klaus an idiot.) So I fixed it. 😸


	8. Chapter 8

Luther had planned to drive Diego and Klaus to the police station at eight in the morning on Monday, but half an hour prior to then, Officer Rodriguez pulled up in a squad car instead. "Did you really have that little faith in us?" Diego disappointedly asked him.

"I’m just following orders," Rodriguez said. "Don’t worry. I’m not going to cuff either of you."

"Well, that’s generous," Diego muttered.

_ So much for things having a way of working out _ , Klaus thought. He wondered how long he would stay clean before jail became too unbearable. 

They arrived at the station ten minutes later and were placed in an interrogation room. Rodriguez left the two brothers alone with a plate of doughnuts and two cups of coffee. Diego moved the plate to Klaus. "Go ahead," he offered.

Klaus shook his head. "I can’t. My stomach's too much in knots."

"Klaus, you need to eat something," Diego ordered quietly. "You won’t feel any better if you don’t."

Klaus reluctantly took a plain cake doughnut and tried nibbling on it. He grew more and more nervous as the time grew closer to eight. By five minutes until, Klaus began shaking. Diego rubbed his back, but that couldn’t help him. All Klaus saw was himself losing his sobriety. He was afraid that it would become too difficult for him to go through the withdrawal process again. Besides, the apocalypse had been averted. There was nothing more to fight.

_ Dave _ , Klaus remembered.  _ I’ll do it again for Dave _ .

At five past the hour, Beaman had yet to arrive. Klaus' trembling increased.

"Hey, come on." Diego squeezed Klaus' shoulder. "Please calm down." He wanted to tell Klaus it would be okay, but he was afraid of giving his brother false hope. He trusted Beaman, but Beaman was also working under the same bureaucracy that Eudora had. Diego couldn’t fault Beaman for going by the book when it came to him; despite his proven innocence in Eudora's murder, Diego still had a reputation within the department and Klaus had a relatively extensive record himself. The DA would take note if he saw Beaman breaking protocol by giving either of the Hargreeves brothers special treatment. In the end, both could receive maximum sentences, and Beaman would be unemployed. 

"Diego?" Klaus looked at him through watery eyes. "Can you promise me something?"

"What’s that?"

"If I can’t stay clean in jail, would you help me get clean again?" Klaus squeaked.

"Klaus…." Diego trailed off. The thought of losing, in a sense, the kindhearted and empathetic brother he was just getting to know grieved him. He did his best not to let it show. He needed to be strong for Klaus.

"Please. I just hope I won’t be as much of an asshole as I was last week," Klaus pleaded through watery eyes.

Diego gave Klaus' shoulder one more squeeze. "You know I’ll do whatever I can to help you. We all will. But let’s wait and see what happens, okay?"

"I already know what’s gonna happen."

Diego swallowed the lump in his throat as he gave Klaus a side hug.

At ten after, Beaman and Rodriguez finally arrived. Klaus quickly wiped his eyes and tried to regain composure. The detective and the officer sat across from the brothers.

"Relax," Beaman smiled at Klaus. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

Diego exchanged glances with Klaus. "Really, Chuck?"

"Sorry," Beaman chuckled. "You two just looked so serious when we got here. Figured I’d make things less tense."

"So, just give it to us straight," Diego said. "Are we going to be arrested right now? Because we’re each entitled to a phone call, and our brother is on standby to post bail."

"Well, we’ll get to that," Beaman said, while Klaus sighed. "However," the detective continued, "now we have quite a few more questions regarding another mass-shooting and damage to the Icarus Theater on Friday night, during your sister’s concert which you said you and your family would be attending."

Diego again looked at Klaus. Neither of them could believe that they had not considered being questioned about their involvement in this. Too much had happened for any of the siblings to completely think things through logically; even Five, presumably the most logical of them all.

"Before you answer," Beaman continued, "You know that among the bodies  _ torn in half _ was the woman who shot Detective Patch."

"You got it," Diego said. He had already made clear to Klaus that he would do all of the talking. "We only know her as Cha-Cha."

"We have her listed as a Jane Doe," Rodriguez said. "There is no record of her fingerprints in our national database. It’ll be a while before we are advised of any DNA match. But on our end, at least, we will be closing the case on Detective Patch."

"Hey, guys," Diego interjected, "Are we under any type of surveillance?"

"Why do you ask?" Beaman inquired.

"If it’s just us, can we call her Eudora?"

Beaman and Rodriguez exchanged glances. "Okay. We’ll be straight with you. There is nothing that connects you to the crime. There were roughly two hundred people in attendance, and that’s just the guests alone. There is nothing that would connect you to these crimes. Not as an average person, that is."

"So, get to the point, Chuck," Diego said impatiently, eyeing Klaus, who was starting to become more nervous as the fate of his next few months was looming over him.

"Well, this Cha-Cha person, as well as the gunmen, were all criminals," Beaman explained. "Especially Cha-Cha, since she killed a cop. If you and your siblings took them all out with your Umbrella Academy superpowers you would, in fact, be hailed as heroes."

Diego and Klaus were floored. That was unexpected. 

"And," Beaman told them, "For now, our conversation is off-record. So, we need for you to be honest with us."

"What do you want to know?" Diego asked cautiously.

"Well," Beaman went on, "With the exception of several who were killed with stab wounds, and two of the gunmen who were shot by one of the others, everyone else was torn in half. We know that this could have only been done by your brother who was killed years ago, the one who expelled the tentacles."

Diego looked again at Klaus, and then he nodded at his friends. "Ben."

"So, how can you explain that one?"

Diego looked at Klaus. "Okay, you should answer this one."

Beaman and Rodriguez looked at Klaus, who gulped nervously.

"Uh," Klaus began nervously, "well, you know that…uh, my power has been conjuring ghosts."

"Yes," Beaman replied, "but I also know you hadn’t used that power for a number of years due to your drug use."

"Um…" Klaus stammered, "Well, I got clean five days ago-"

"Congratulations!" Rodriguez, who had dealt with Klaus in the past and had tried to cut him breaks when he could, beamed at Klaus.

"Thank you, sir," Klaus said. "Well, anyway, it turns out that when I’m clean, I can also make my brother corporeal in heated situations; so…uh, he did take the rest of them out. Or,  _ we _ did, I guess."

Beaman exchanged glances with Rodriguez before going on. "Our next question pertains to the van across the street from the Meritech arson. First of all, it was only after we talked to you at your place on Friday that we found out that the van had been stolen. The plumber had never called it in because he was in debt and assumed that the van had been repoed. But, the fingerprints there are the same fingerprints on a knife used to stab one of the gunmen at Griddy's Doughnuts; and according to ballistics, those prints return to an unsolved cold case from the 1930s. So, explain that one, please."

Diego sighed. He wasn’t sure how the officers would process this form of information. "Well, I’m not sure if you guys will believe me on this one."

"Try us," Beaman said. "We already believe what you both have told us so far."

Diego took a breath and explained Five's return and their knowledge of his time in the post-apocalyptic future and what he had to do to return; and yes, how the siblings saved the world.

Beaman and Rodriguez were silent for a moment, processing all of this information. Finally Beaman said, "Well, your father always-"

"Excuse me," Diego interrupted, "please don’t call him our father."

Beaman paused. "Okay, Mr. Hargreeves had always said that you were meant to save the world. Um, well, I guess you’ve just answered my next question, and that is whether the Umbrella Academy has risen again."

"No," Diego said. "Not publicly. Sir Reginald Hargreeves exploited us for his personal gain and nothing more. I think he wanted full credit if he would’ve been able to prove that we saved the world while he was alive. You know of our sister’s book - and, by the way, we’ve reconciled with her about that - and she will now admit that she wasn’t completely accurate about us as a people, but what she did say about Hargreeves was true." Diego looked at Klaus. "He put some of us through more shit than any of us can talk about."

Beaman and Rodriguez exchanged a knowing glance. "Well, that answers all of my questions about the Academy," Beaman told them. "We’ll find a way to ensure that none of your family are considered suspects in any of these sprees. And as far as your time-traveling brother is concerned, we can’t really arrest him for whatever he did for his 'employer' in other time periods; I assume he’s not going to attempt murdering people in this one."

Diego nodded. "Yeah, I don’t think we have to worry about that anymore.

"Okay," Beaman said. "This now brings us to the ice cream truck."

Klaus braced himself.

"First of all," Beaman said to Diego, "until we talked to you on Friday, your involvement in this was only speculation on our part; so the only thing the owner knew was that it was stolen by a known junkie with a history of theft. When I went back to confirm that another brother was involved and was chasing criminals he knew had killed a police officer, he asked if your name was Diego Hargreeves." As Diego looked on, confused, Beaman continued, "It turns out that two years ago, you saved his sister and her family when they were robbed at gunpoint. So, he’s agreed to drop the charges and refuses any financial compensation for loss of business from your family."

Diego and Klaus simultaneously sighed in relief.

"However," Beaman went on, "your brother’s not completely out of the woods, because there is still pending the charge of operating a vehicle without a license or insurance."

"Shit," Klaus muttered. He knew it couldn’t have been that easy for him. He began trembling again.

Diego placed his hand on Klaus' shoulder. "Please don’t arrest my brother for something I asked him to do."

"Now, hold on," Beaman said. "I talked to the DA. He has agreed to only apply the unlicensed driving charge, and if you plead guilty, he will recommend that you be enrolled in a diversion program, and that is something that Officer Rodriguez here will explain to you."

"This is a nonprofit organization that my buddy from childhood and a couple of other people founded," Rodriguez began. "It’s a program that helps drug offenders learn life skills with the goal of becoming employable. My buddy and his younger brother were raised by a father who was also wealthy but emotionally abusive. The brother also deviated from the more 'traditional male roles.' My friend was praised by his father while the brother was ignored, and became an addict, too. In 2005 the father died and the sons were left with a large inheritance. At the time, the younger brother had actually just gotten clean himself and met a man who unfortunately was after his share of the inheritance, despite my friend being financially responsible for their father’s estate. Once the guy realized the brother couldn’t access the account, mainly because my buddy figured any money he would give his brother would go to drugs, the asshole dumped his brother, and the brother killed himself after that."

"Shit," Diego muttered. Klaus remained still.

"My buddy, in turn, decided to use the funds to launch this program, figuring he could help others in the memory of the brother he didn’t. It has a high success rate in rehabilitating addicts, and the fact that you voluntarily became sober even before knowing of your original charges will work even more in your favor with the DA."

Klaus sat back, speechless. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Was he dreaming? There was actually hope that he could become a productive member of society? 

"So you’re saying…?" Diego began.

"What I’m saying is," Rodriguez said, "I’ll take Klaus here to Booking to get him processed and get his court date. It should only take up to half an hour, and then you’re both free to go."

Diego and Klaus tearfully exchanged a bear hug. "Thank you," Klaus sobbed to everyone in the room. Once again, he found hope for himself.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Suicidal ideations depicted, and Sir Reginald is a bigot. This is about as dark as my story gets here.

On Tuesday the news broke that Harold Jenkins, recently known by the alias Leonard Peabody, was found in his home dead of an apparent freakish suicide, seemingly fueled by news of Sir Reginald Hargreeves' death. It was speculated that his was one of several fan suicides having been reported throughout the country lately. It had taken some time for him to be discovered, because last Wednesday he had left a note on the door of his woodworking store that it would be closed until Monday; a concerned colleague had gone to check on him when he had never shown up.

Klaus had mentioned to Diego that he had needed to go back to Jenkins' home and try conjuring Helen Cho in order to locate her body and give her family closure, but Diego said not with the current surveillance outside the home and that Klaus needed to keep himself out of trouble. That became a moot point, anyway, when her body was discovered among the woods outside the city limits on Wednesday afternoon. It was speculated that she had fallen from a cliff and hit her head, which the siblings realized was for the best so that there was no way of connecting this to Harold/Leonard or Vanya. At least Helen's family knew she was gone.

Later that evening Klaus checked on Vanya; he found her sitting on her bed, silently crying. He sat down on the bed next to her and said nothing, waiting for her to speak.

Finally her voice quivered, "I know he was a monster, but I loved him." Klaus rubbed Vanya's back in circular motion as she continued tearfully, "I'd never loved anyone like I loved him, and he _ lied _to me about everything. This hurts so much…."

"I know, honey," Klaus pulled Vanya close and gently rocked her as she sobbed loudly. "I’m so sorry," he whispered tearfully. 

Vanya eventually cried herself to sleep in her brother’s arms; of course, Klaus stayed with her that night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The family waited until Allison's arrival on Thursday to celebrate the good news about Diego's and especially Klaus' aversion from jail time. They all had dinner at an Italian restaurant within the arts district of the city, which Klaus had picked as the family had given him the option of choice. He looked on as his five living siblings, with Ben hovering around them, were all doing this for _ him _ . Well, Diego, too; but Klaus knew that it would have been nothing to Diego to be locked up as he had also spent time on the inside, and no one had ever dared to mess with him. But the family was celebrating _ Klaus _ tonight, when a little over a week before, no one had seemed to think he was much use for anything. Tonight he was loved; more importantly, he was relearning how to love back.

Allison continued her own celebration by painting Klaus' nails that night, and then taking him on a shopping spree Friday afternoon. They had invited Vanya, but she had just had her own spree with Klaus and figured that he and Allison should reconnect. He seemed to have more in common with Allison than she did, Vanya knew; at the same time, so did he with Vanya in their own ways.

Vanya tried to play the violin, but anytime that energy was released, she was reminded of that audition, the first day she had felt good about herself since who-knew-when, only to learn that Leonard had set it up and had gotten rid of her medication.

Vanya had discovered a letter from her conductor that the St. Pluvium Chamber Orchestra was suspending practices and future performances until further notice in light of the recent shooting and lack of performance venue, as well as another from her music school advising of her immediate termination of her teaching position due to her no-show since the previous Wednesday, when checking her mail the day before. She had also typed up her thirty-day notice of vacating her apartment and still needed to advise the families of her private students her immediate resignation there as well; maybe the family of the child prodigy could find a better teacher from whom that kid could actually learn.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock at her doorway. She turned to face Diego. "Hey," he said quietly. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." Vanya placed the violin back in its case and sat on her bed while Diego grabbed the chair from her desk.

"How are you doing?" He asked her.

Vanya shrugged. "Trying to figure out the next chapter in my life."

"Yeah," Diego nodded understandingly. "Same with me."

"Look, Diego," Vanya began, "This whole apocalypse thing is over. I know you’re trying to make sure that Klaus and I are getting help and feeling included and all that, but you don’t need to keep this up with me if you still don’t like me for what I did with my book. It’s totally understandable and I’m not going to blow up over it, literally or figuratively-"

"Vanya," Diego gently cut her off. "I don’t think that way now."

Vanya swallowed the lump in her throat; crying would just make him feel obligated to play nice. "You don’t have to lie to me. I know I was wrong in so much that I wrote."

"Please. Stop," he implored. He took a breath before continuing. "I know I said a lot of hateful things to you when we all first got here. I never acknowledged you for agreeing with me during the meeting about Mom. And after shit went down here with the two lunatics, I didn’t even ask if you were okay after they’d attacked you. Instead I just called you a liability. I was wrong, and I’m sorry."

Vanya nodded. "It’s okay."

"Can I be honest with you about something?" Diego asked.

"Of course."

"I think that my biggest resentment growing up was seeing you with Hargreeves as kind of a second assistant to him during training," Diego explained. "I was jealous that you never had to train with us, but instead help him give orders, or at least that was how I saw it. And then after we all left, you were the only one who had a normal life and a regular job. Allison was a famous actress, Klaus was a junkie, I boxed and mopped floors while playing hero at night, and Luther still took Hargreeves' orders."

"And now none of us are doing any of that now, including me," Vanya noted; during the previous weekend, right after the concert fiasco, Allison had said that she had no immediate projects and therefore would take a hiatus from acting in order to work on her relationship with her daughter and her siblings. She thought of Diego's other comment. "I never thought of it that way." She then thought of something, which gave her a bitter chuckle. "You know, I remember when you all got tattooed. I watched from the staircase."

"Shit, that was fucking brutal," Diego remembered. "Mom had to blindfold me any time I needed a shot after that. I can’t handle needles."

"I’m sorry," Vanya abruptly stopped herself. "I shouldn’t have brought it up."

"No, no, it’s okay. What were you going to tell me?"

"It’s just…" Vanya continued awkwardly, "at the time, I never thought of how painful the process was, only that I wasn’t a part of it. I even took out a pen and drew the same insignia on my wrist. In hindsight, I feel really dumb now."

Diego pondered those thoughts. "Vanya, it’s not dumb. It’s like I said before: all of us made mistakes. And after all we’ve been through, I can’t be mad at you for something that’s so trivial now."

"You don’t have to pretend-"

"Vanya." Diego cut her off again. "Are any of us talking to Klaus out of obligation?"

"No."

"Why are we, then?" Diego looked her in the eye.

"Because we love him."

Diego touched her shoulder. "We all love you, too. You’re our sister, and I promise you that I forgive you. I hope you can forgive me, too. And I love you."

The two siblings embraced in a hug as Vanya wept, "I love you, too."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Allison arrived back with Klaus, who was armed with probably as many shopping bags as had Vanya, in the late afternoon and Grace fixed all of the siblings supper in the lounge. Everyone had just finished eating and were talking around the table when Klaus suddenly piped up, "Uh, guys?"

Everyone stopped and faced him. "What’s up?" Diego asked.

"Well," Klaus said uneasily, "Ben just told me that Sir Reggie wants me to bring him out to talk to us all."

The room fell dead silent. "He’s here now?" Luther finally inquired.

"No, not yet," Klaus said. "I don’t want to start conjuring him unless we all agree to this."

The other siblings were secretly glad that Allison's power still seemed to work. Sir Reginald Hargreeves would not make an appearance to Klaus unless he was willing to do so.

The others exchanged glances around the table. "What does he want?" Luther asked. 

Klaus paused, and then responded, "To answer our questions."

Five piped up, "You mean, how he knew that the apocalypse was coming a week after he killed himself?"

Klaus was silent for another moment. "Yeah, among other things."

"Klaus," Diego interjected, "Are you sure you’re up to doing this?"

"Yes," Klaus answered in a tone that Diego had never before heard. "We all need answers."

After a unanimous vote, the siblings cleared the table and headed up the stairs to begin the process.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ten minutes later they were in the living room, Klaus seated on the bench near the bar while the others sat or stood around waiting. "He’s here," Klaus said.

Vanya stared intently at him. Her eyes glowed white as her power lifted the bench three feet off the ground and promptly dropped it, startling Klaus.

"_ Christ _ on a _ cracker! _" Klaus screamed as Vanya's eyes returned to their brown color.

But it worked, because then Klaus' hands glowed, and Sir Reginald Hargreeves stood in blue form before them.

The monster who saw his adopted children as nothing more than experimental superheroes. The dictator who only allowed them half an hour of "recreational activities" per _ week _. The bastard who isolated them from each other and society at large.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the heartless being who ruined all of their lives. 

"Well!" Sir Reginald began in his usual harsh British tone, "I’m certainly glad to see that you all managed to reunite without killing one another."

Luther stepped to face him. "Hello, Dad."

"Ah, Number One. My greatest apologies that you had to make such the discovery that you did. I regret that you had to encounter that truth."

Luther stared bitterly at the man he thought he had trusted his entire life. "And that’s all you regret. That I found out, not that you sent me on a useless mission for four years."

"Well, as I explained to Number Four, I knew that the world would soon need you, and all of you; and I had to do what was necessary."

Number Four, meanwhile, remained seated with hands outstretched, the blue glow making his respective _ HELLO _ and _ GOOD BYE _ palm tattoos even more prominent, with eyes closed. It was obvious through slight shifts in facial expressions that he could hear the dialogue.

"Well, let’s just cut right to the chase, then, shall we?" Five interjected. "How did you know about the apocalypse in the first place?"

"Number Five," Sir Reginald looked at him. "And welcome back from your extended vacation. I hope you learned a thing or two."

"Not exactly a vacation," Five muttered cynically.

"And whose fault is that?" Sir Reginald looked down at the "boy" through his monocle in self-righteousness. "Did I not say that you were ill-prepared for such a challenge? Did not even Number Seven advise against it?"

"But I survived," Five said coldly. "For forty-five years, I survived, only to return to a family who discovered that you lied to all of us."

"If that is how you perceive it, then so be it."

"Number Five asked you a question," Luther said authoritatively. "You said you were here to answer our questions."

"Very well, then. Listen without interruption; I don’t have much time. I shall begin by admitting that I, too, was once a time-traveler."

The others, besides Klaus, stared at Sir Reginald Hargreeves in amazement. That was unexpected. 

Sir Reginald Hargreeves had originally immigrated from Great Britain in the early twentieth century and purchased an umbrella manufacturing company which fell prey to the Great Depression. With no money or concrete plan, he graciously accepted a new position - as a temporal assassin for the Temps Commission. His partner became the love of his life, a violinist in her own previous timeline. During the course of their employment, the couple learned about the March 2019 apocalypse, and that the Commission had deployed their people to bring new life on the earth fifty years later. (Five immediately realized that happened not long after he himself had been recruited.) They had also known of the spontaneous births of which the Hargreeves Siblings were a part in October 1989, but because they were not raised by guardians who recognized their abilities, all but one of the forty-three children eventually lost their respective powers; the exception to this was the only child from that event who was born in Russia.

Sir Reginald and his partner fulfilled their contracts and retired to the future so to not alter past timelines, only for the world to end then, too. Knowing he needed to stop the original apocalypse, Sir Reginald left his lady love behind as she was dying from an illness, took her violin which Number Seven now owned, and released what they had stolen from the Temps Commission: a jar of illuminated dust that allowed him another opportunity to travel to the time of his choosing.

He returned to 1964, allowing himself twenty-five years to build his empire and fortune, showcase his genius-level brilliance by producing the serum that gave Pogo his human qualities, and became the most respected and admired individual of the era. At the same time, however, he had to be hardened in order to train the children he would eventually adopt and raise to save the world. They needed to be hardened, too, if they were going to be effective in killing any foes, of which there would be many. It was easy for Sir Reginald to do this; he had already loved someone and never would again. He got rid of that weakness and became the prominent billionaire the world came to know.

When the 1989 event occurred, the infant girl from Russia was the first that Sir Reginald had adopted. The other six were selected at random, as he had known he would train them to enhance whatever their powers might be, each of which began developing at four years of age. The six children were, in fact, assigned their numbers by order of adoption…_ after _ that of the Russian girl, who became Number Seven. 

But the children he adopted - with the exception of Number One - failed to fulfill the duties that came with their identities. Regardless, Number Five's eventual disappearance had given Sir Reginald hope that Five might have indeed survived the apocalypse and would someday learn how to get back, and that together the Umbrella Academy would avert this worldwide tragedy. As the date of the apocalypse drew near and Five had yet to return, however, Sir Reginald made what he considered the Ultimate Sacrifice in order to save the world.

Well, okay then.

"So, any questions?"

"I have a question," Allison approached the elder man. "Why did you turn me against my sister when we were four years old?"

Vanya stood up and joined her. Allison put her arm around her.

"Well, as you could see," Sir Reginald replied, "Number Seven was highly dangerous. She had no control over her powers to the extent that it cost human lives. It was necessary that her powers be suppressed-"

"By locking me in a cage?" Vanya surprisingly asserted.

"You had destroyed several of my nannies and were not responding to training. Again, I had to do what was necessary for the benefit of the Umbrella Academy as a whole."

"Because you couldn’t teach me right from wrong," Vanya said boldly.

"Because you were too dangerous," Sir Reginald debated.

Vanya took one more look at him. "No. Because you refused to teach me anything. I will not be blamed for your ignorance." She turned back toward the couch. Allison gave a cynical smirk and followed.

"Anything else you wish to ask of me?" Sir Reginald said impatiently. "I’m almost out of time."

"Yeah, I do," Diego loudly piped up. "I'd like to ask something on behalf of the person who brought you here. In what cell within your pea-sized brain did you think it was okay to lock a kid as young as eight years old in a mausoleum?!"

The others looked at Klaus, his eyes still closed and lips pressed together more tightly.

"Well, as you know, Number Two," Sir Reginald responded, "Fear was the one obstacle that caused Number Four to lose control of his powers. Therefore, such trainings were necessary in order to harden him and overcome this weakness. Unfortunately, he was unable to enhance his true potential and instead, he became the biggest crybaby among you all. Once he reached a certain age I realized that he would never fulfill his destiny as the warrior that he, and all of you, were trained to be. The fact that he began pumping himself full of poison became a blessing as otherwise he would have eventually wreaked havoc on the Academy with his misuse of powers. He was no longer of any benefit to the collective, with or without the poison. And that is why he was my biggest disappointment."

Everyone remained quiet, shocked that Sir Reginald Hargreeves could say such things. Klaus remained motionless. Before anyone could respond, Sir Reginald continued.

"Had Grace not instinctively responded to any of Number Four's attempts on his own life, he would have been successful in execution of his plan the first time. Considering the plethora of life failures that followed him, it would have been within his best interest; I would not have stopped him."

The room fell dead silent. Five turned to Luther and mouthed, _ Did you know? _ Luther shook his head. The others processed the cruelty of Sir Reginald's words. Luther looked at Diego, who appeared ready to launch every knife at a corporeal image that couldn’t even be scratched.

Then Luther stepped back forward to face Sir Reginald Hargreeves. Gritting his teeth, he said, "I think we’re done here."

"Well, I expected better from you, Number One," Sir Reginald said sternly.

Luther stared coldly at him. "My name is Luther. Good-bye, and good riddance, Reggie."

"Very well, then," Sir Reginald said. "Just remember, my plan worked: I brought you all back here, and you all saved the world." With that he vanished, never to be seen again.

Everyone looked at Klaus, who opened his eyes and stared blankly ahead. No one seemed to know what to say.

Klaus suddenly sprang from the bench and darted forward, but Diego quickly blocked him and grabbed his wrists.

"_ Let me go!!! _" Klaus screamed as he struggled from Diego's grip, wanting to run away and never be seen by anyone ever again.

"Nope. I don’t think so," Diego said sternly as Klaus fought him. Luther stepped forward to intervene but Allison quickly jumped up and stopped him. Everyone watched Diego gradually push Klaus back to the bench and force him to sit down, Diego's hands remaining clasped around Klaus' wrists.

"_ LET ME GO! _" Klaus flailed wildly.

Diego crouched down in front of Klaus and looked him straight in the eye. "You are _ not _ going to leave us right now. We’re _ not _ going to let you go out and self-destruct!"

"What, you want me to be a useless crybaby?!" Klaus laughed bitterly.

Diego shook Klaus and gritted his teeth. "Do _ not _ repeat the words of a heartless _ animal _ who doesn’t give a _ SHIT _ whether a person lives or dies! You are much, much better than that." Klaus continued to fight. "Don’t throw away everything you’ve just accomplished!" Diego shook him again.

"_ LET ME FUCKING GO!!! _" Klaus shrieked. 

"_ Why is what that sick bastard says still so important to you?! _" Diego cried.

"_ BECAUSE ALL I EVER WANTED WAS TO MAKE HIM PROUD OF ME!!! _ " Klaus suddenly exploded. " _ All I ever wanted was for him to love me! And all he ever did was hate me! _" Klaus stopped struggling as his voice trembled. "And he still hates me…he’ll always hate me…."

Klaus broke down crying violently as Diego quickly sat with him on the bench and grabbed hold of him tightly. As Klaus' hands dug into Diego's arms, they glowed once more and Ben appeared sitting behind Klaus, also hugging him. Vanya and Allison sprang from their seats and joined them, slowly followed by Luther and Five who stood behind, each placing a hand on Klaus as years of resentment and self-hatred poured out in his tears.

After a long while Klaus' sobbing nearly subsided, and Luther sat down on the barstool closest to the bench. "Klaus?"

Klaus looked up. The others stepped back and Ben disappeared, while Diego remained with Klaus on the bench keeping a somewhat cautious hold of him. Klaus turned to face Luther.

"That was all I ever wanted, too," Luther said. "His love and approval." He briefly looked out at everyone. "All that mattered to me was being Number One. And when I learned what he did, I pushed everyone away." He turned back to Klaus. "Don’t do the same. Diego's right. You’re much better than that. I’m just sorry it took me nearly thirty years to finally admit to myself the truth about the kind of person he really was." He looked back outward. "I’m sorry to all of you."

Klaus quickly jumped up and hugged Luther. After they pulled away, Diego stood up next to Klaus and held out his hand to Luther.

For the first time ever, Luther and Diego shook hands, and called a truce. That was all they did, and then Diego quickly sat back down with Klaus. Allison was proud of them both. Time would tell whether the two brothers could ever form any kind of friendship, but they were no longer enemies. It was definitely a start.

Next to Allison, Vanya stood up and walked over to Klaus and took his hands.

"Vanya," Klaus looked at her through his eyes still brimming with tears. "I’m sorry that you had to see all of that."

"Klaus, it’s totally understandable," Vanya smiled through her own tears. "And I’d have no room to judge anyone who loses their temper." They both chuckled. Then Vanya said more seriously, "You know, I actually look up to you."

Klaus jerked his head back in disbelief. 

"The fact that you had just gone through your more recent stuff and managed to reach out to me, even as sick you were," she said. "I mean, I honestly don’t think I could have gotten through this without your help. And also, how much you show your love to all of us despite your traumas. You are the strongest person I know."

Diego rubbed Klaus on the back of his head. Klaus remembered Diego having said the same: _ you are the strongest person I know _. 

Klaus embraced Vanya and shed his last few remaining tears. As Vanya sat back down next to Allison, Klaus leaned back in exhaustion, rested his head on Diego's shoulder and closed his eyes.

The other siblings sat around talking quietly as Klaus slept peacefully. They talked of more pranks, of the doughnut-eating contests at Griddy's, and any other stories that had nothing to do with them being superheroes; just kids. When Vanya started nodding off Allison nudged her and the two left together. Then Diego said goodnight to Luther and Five, and he picked up Klaus to once again carry him to his room.

After Diego deposited his brother in his bed and covered him up, Diego made himself comfortable in the recliner, ensuring that Klaus would not be alone. Diego hoped that after everything that had recently taken place, that Klaus would truly be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, I guess you can tell that I’m into the whole Whump / Hurt/Comfort content. And yes, I realize I wrote at least some of these people OOC in comparison to canon, but I’m a softie who wants everyone to get along; and I want both Klaus and Vanya to get all the hugs that they didn’t in at least the first season.


	10. Chapter 10

The siblings all awoke early Saturday morning, so after breakfast they all decided to do something fun together as a family, and they visited a small Victorian town half an hour from the city. They had lunch at a deli cafe there and returned back to the Academy during the mid-afternoon. Everyone agreed to a takeout dinner and watching movies in the living room using Vanya's TV set that she had brought from her apartment. Diego said he would pick up food and movies later, and he took the car and left with Klaus.

"Were Five and I the only ones who didn’t know all that stuff about Klaus?" Luther asked Allison in the living room after Diego and Klaus left.

"None of us knew much of anything about him until a week ago," Allison said, "including Diego. But I can tell now that he’s used his humor to cover up his traumas. That and the drugs seemed to be his only way of coping."

Luther nodded. "I guess I can finally understand the drug use." He sighed and looked Allison in the eye. "I mean, that night…well, I was already too drunk to remember much, but when I first took that pill I remember thinking I was so alive, but then that was all I could recall until the next morning."

Allison and Luther looked away from each other for a moment. Then she smiled. "Well, I guess you learned your lesson."

"Yeah," Luther chuckled awkwardly. Then he said more seriously, "I don’t know how I’m supposed to act around you now."

Allison nodded. "Same here," she admitted. "We have a lot to work through. All of us do."

But they knew now, they would have the time to do so.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vanya was reading a book in her room when Five stood at the doorway. "Hey, Vanya."

"Hi." Vanya closed her book as Five walked in.

"Do you know where the old man's journal is?"

Vanya shook her head. "I think Diego might have hid it after finding out everything about Klaus."

Five nodded. "I just was curious about what he might have written the day I disappeared." Then he took a moment to reflect. "You know, after I realized that I couldn’t come back at that time, I dedicated my life to figuring out how I could and keep this from happening. Then, when I did get back, it was frustrating to see that nothing had changed, especially while I was watching Luther and Diego go at it during the memorial. I kept thinking,  _ I lived through the apocalypse and killed people to come back to this? _ Everyone was obsessing over what seemed like petty things while I was stuck in a wasteland for forty-five years."

"I understand," Vanya said. "Well, I don’t, really; I can’t imagine."

"Then, after seeing how being raised by Hargreeves damaged some of you, and especially Klaus," Five continued, "I mean, I fought for my life every day in the future, while Klaus tried to kill himself because of how the old man treated him. Then I wondered, how bad off was I really in the apocalypse? I was alone, but at least I didn’t have to spend the remainder of my childhood being force-fed lies and drivel by the old man."

"Wow," Vanya shook her head. "You just compared living with Reginald Hargreeves to living in the apocalypse."

Five snickered. "Yeah, and after I berated Klaus for willingly spending ten months in a war zone. When Hazel was here to clear Diego's name, he asked me what I thought would have happened if I hadn’t jumped forward and got involved with the Handler; I said I would probably have grown into an emotionally-stunted man-child like everyone else in the house. At least that was how I saw it at the time."

Vanya reflected on that. "And you were right; we all were."

"Yeah, you all were when I first got back," Five agreed, "but then I watched us all unite with you, and we stopped the apocalypse and saved the world; as cruel as the old man was, his fakakta plan worked and we all came back together. Then I saw us all become a family again last night, and…uh, I have to admit now that I’m kind of glad to be back."

Vanya smiled at Five. "Well, that’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say since you’ve been back."

Five chuckled, and then looked at Vanya more seriously. "You tried telling me not to attempt time-jumping. I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I had listened." Then he sighed before continuing. "I don’t like talking much about the apocalypse, because I need to build the life that I have now, whatever it is. But as I said to Luther, all of those years alone can really mess with a person's mind. And I did learn to desensitize myself, since there was nothing I could become emotionally attached to, besides Delores. And, of course, once I got back here all I could focus was on stopping the apocalypse, but I hadn’t considered how emotionally detached I was from the family until Klaus pointed out my behavior toward him after he had returned from 1968. Then I heard Hargreeves go on and on about how he had hardened himself, which he did to the point that he didn’t give a shit about any of us if we didn’t do what he wanted. I was on that same path myself, and when I heard him admit he would have let Klaus kill himself because Klaus was ineffective to him, I realized I could have eventually turned out to be just as cruel."

Vanya smiled again and shook her head. "But you’re not, and somehow I don’t think you would have ever gotten there."

Five took a deep breath. "I’m not very good at this, but…well, when we were kids, you were my best friend, too. And, uh…I’d like us to get to know each other better, as we are now."

Vanya reached out and hugged Five. Five reluctantly patted her on the back.

"Okay, that’s enough," Five said as they pulled away. "Now, what was the violin piece you had said in your book you wanted to play for me if I were to return?"

Vanya grabbed her violin and first took Five to the lounge, where she made him a peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwich. As Five ate, Vanya's beautiful melodic playing made the room glow a little brighter.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diego had taken Klaus to the lake. The two brothers sat silently at the same spot where Diego had dropped Sir Reginald's monocle nearly two weeks before.

"Okay, Diego," Klaus smiled suspiciously. "I know you brought me out here to talk. Go ahead."

Diego smiled back and then said more seriously, "I just want to make sure you’re okay."

"After my performance last night?" Klaus chuckled sadly.

"After everything," Diego said. "And especially after what was said."

"Well, first of all, I promise that I’m not suicidal-"

"That promise had better include talking to me if you ever are," Diego said sternly.

Klaus nodded. "I will. I promise."

Diego sighed. "Klaus, you know that no decent human being would ever say that about another person, especially someone they raised as their child."

Klaus nodded again as his eyes began to water. "I know. And when I heard him say those things, it did hurt, but it didn’t surprise me. A part of myself always knew that he hated me, but I didn’t want to believe it. Then after hearing that, I was angry with myself for wasting too much time trying to please him, trying to become a person he could accept, when he never accepted me at all."

"And he wasn’t worth it," Diego said bitterly.

"He was never my dad," Klaus blinked back the tears. "He was never family. But you, Vanya…even Luther…you’re all my family. Some of you accept me more than others, but you all do in your own way, and I know you all love me."

Diego smiled warmly and gave Klaus a pat on the back. "You’re right. We do all love you. And you have given so much back to us. Not just to Vanya. I mean…" Diego felt his own eyes tear up, "because you got sober, we not only beat those gunmen, but you brought me Eudora and gave me that closure. You’ve done more for me than you know."

"I’m glad…." Klaus started to say before he felt a twinge of guilt and a lump in his throat.

"Hey," Diego looked at him. "What’s up?"

Klaus shook his head. "It’s nothing." Why should he reopen a wound in Diego that had just been relatively healed?

But Diego caught on. "Do you think her death was your fault?"

That was when, once again, the floodgates opened for Klaus. "She was fine when I escaped! I thought she had everything under control! I should have stayed with her! I’m sorry!"

Diego put his arm back around Klaus' shoulders. "Hey. Don’t talk like that, bro. Listen to me, okay?"

Klaus covered his face with his hands, trying to muffle his sobs.

"Klaus, if you would have stayed, they would have killed you along with her," Diego said. "And if no one had shown up, they would have killed you anyway. Anyone who becomes a cop knows of the risks involved. Some officers don’t make it home one day. Eudora was one of them. She said that life was unfair, but she also died doing what she was passionate about: helping someone in danger, and that someone being my brother. I stopped blaming myself after you brought her out, so you need to stop blaming yourself as well. Okay?"

Klaus nodded and wiped his eyes. "I’ll try."

Diego gave Klaus another pat on the shoulder. "Remember, you’ve done a lot of good for this family."

"I’m glad I was able to give back," Klaus said. "You and Ben have had to put up with a lot of my shit over the years. I’ve never thanked you, but I’ll say it now: thank you for everything you’ve done for me."

"You’re thanking me by living the life you are now," Diego told him. "I mean it when I say I’m really proud of you, brother."

"I’ve always looked up to you," Klaus admitted.

"And now you’re someone I admire," Diego said back. "And you’re also my best friend."

Klaus would have never imagined Diego saying these things to him. Less than two weeks ago (by the others' perspective, at least; not ten months) Klaus had considered himself a worthless junkie discarded by most of his family. Now the brother whom Klaus had always admired was saying the same about him. "You’re my best friend, too," Klaus smiled tearfully. "You and Ben, of course."

Diego patted Klaus on the shoulder once more as they looked out into the glistening water.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The family had just eaten their dinner and were spread out among the couches and Klaus' oversized pillows with blankets in the living room, ready to watch their first movie. Luther had just gotten his oversized mattress into the living room when there was a knock on the door. Five zapped to the entrance and opened it.

"Hey, oldtimer," Hazel stood before him.


	11. Chapter 11

"Uh, hi," Five said to Hazel and then turned to face the others, who gradually stood to their feet.

"Is it okay to come in?" Hazel asked cautiously.

"What do you want?" Luther stared at him coldly.

"Well, I have some information that I think you all would like to hear," Hazel told everyone.

Five looked at the siblings, and then back at Hazel. He slowly stepped back allowing Hazel entrance. The two walked cautiously side-by-side into the living room.

Luther approached Hazel "And why should we listen to anything you have to say, after all you did to our family?"

"And what he did _ for _ our family," Five interjected. "Like clearing Diego's name."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Diego said sarcastically. "You still kidnapped and tortured my brother." Klaus, who was standing next to Diego, glared at Hazel as well.

"_ And _ you shut down our mother," Allison added.

_ Shit. _ Diego felt a twinge of guilt. He didn’t want to tell the whole family what he had done.

Hazel eyed Diego and said, "Actually, that was Cha-Cha's doing, too."

_ How the hell would he have known what I did? _ Diego wondered.

"But you’re right about your brother." Hazel then looked at Klaus. "I don’t expect you to forgive me, and I know I could never make it up to you; but hopefully what I have to say will help you and your family even more."

Klaus exchanged glances with Diego. "Maybe we can try? After all, he cleared your name. And I probably would have been given a harsher sentence for the ice cream truck without your help."

"Listen, guys," Hazel said to everyone, "I never liked doing any of my jobs. When the Temps Commission first recruited me, I had lost my business after my wife and kids were killed in a car wreck in 1958. I was under the impression that I would be eliminating criminals, but by the time I realized what I had gotten myself into, I couldn’t get out of it. You all obviously know what happens when a Commission employee breaks their contract." Hazel looked at Five, and then continued. "My partner, Cha-Cha, she loved her job. I was just working until I could fulfill my contract."

"Yeah, I could tell that you hated it," Klaus chuckled. "Jan Mueller, remember? How much shit did Cha-Cha give you for that one?"

Five looked at Hazel. "What did you do?"

Hazel sighed. "I killed him but let his wife escape."

"Oh, shit," Five laughed. "And you’re still alive?"

"You know what," Diego interjected, "if Klaus can forgive him, I think we all can, too."

Luther looked around the room. Everyone nodded in agreement. As all but Five and Hazel sat down, Luther asked, "So, what do you have to tell us?"

"Well, first of all, Five," Hazel began, "You didn’t kill the Handler when you escaped from the Commission. _ I _ did when she held my lady love hostage at the B-and-B where we were staying in Jackpine Cove." Hazel went on to explain that after talking with Five he had returned to the B&B to find that Cha-Cha had tied Agnes up and was ready to kill Agnes while Hazel watched, and then she would kill him. The Handler appeared, stating that the apocalypse was still happening and ordered Hazel and Cha-Cha to protect Vanya, and she held Agnes hostage until the job would be completed. "Pretty clever of you, Five, by the way, for sending me and Cha-Cha separate orders to kill each other."

"Yeah, well, what can I say," Five grinned.

Hazel continued the story of how he and Cha-Cha drove to the theater, but Hazel knew the Handler's offer wasn’t legit because she hadn’t provided them with another briefcase. Therefore, upon arrival to the theater Hazel quickly revved his car and slammed into a concrete barrier, sending Cha-Cha flying out the window. Then he returned to the B&B, and that was when he shot and killed the Handler. He took her briefcase and had planned to time-travel, but Agnes insisted that he first warn Five that the apocalypse was supposedly imminent. When they heard on the car radio of a mass shooting at the theater, resulting in the deaths of all suspects, Hazel figured that the apocalypse had been averted. However, he first decided to travel to the Commission and check things out there.

Of course, Hazel saw the extensive damage Five had caused; and he learned that with the sudden mass loss of personnel, the remaining case managers had to take on multiple caseloads simultaneously; therefore, none of the timelines were accurately monitored, including this one. However, when Hazel announced that the Handler was dead, all of the employees were relieved as they no longer feared for their lives. Everyone decided to live out their days in the Temps Commission's 1955 setting so to not alter any more timelines. The case manager who had taken over Dot's file gladly handed all of the case notes on the apocalypse to Hazel.

"So, these notes…." Five began.

"They elaborate on how the apocalypse that you had jumped to, had started in the first place," Hazel said. And then he began explaining.

Other than Five's return in this timeline, most of the events the day of Sir Reginald's memorial were the same. Klaus tossed the journal in the dumpster and Harold Jenkins found it. However, without the presence of Five or any other Commission personnel, Diego didn’t have any major crimes to investigate; and while Patch survived until the apocalypse, she and Diego had never made amends. All of the interaction between Allison and Vanya remained the same until the time that Hazel and Cha-Cha would have broken in; therefore, Allison had the same concerns about Harold, AKA Leonard, and she had still decided to stick around due to the suspicions about Sir Reginald's death as well. Diego also moved back in after the meeting about their mother, to look out for her. Of course, with the absence of the assassins, Klaus was never kidnapped nor did he travel through time, so he continued using drugs.

After Vanya brought Leonard to the Academy and invited the siblings to the concert, Allison relayed her concerns about Leonard to the brothers thinking that Vanya and Leonard left, but Leonard had "forgotten" his jacket and overheard the conversation as he stole a figurine of Sir Reginald from a display case (Hazel enlightened Vanya that Leonard had done the same in this timeline, but there was no mention of him in the siblings' conversation so he had no suspicions). Afterward, Leonard talked her into coming with him to his grandmother's cabin in Jackpine Cove. That night they had dinner at a restaurant, and in the parking lot three men started harassing them. Vanya's powers went out of control and she killed two of the three attackers after one of them had damaged Leonard's eye. Because of his alias, Leonard left the hospital against medical advice the following morning. Later that day Vanya figured out that her power was based on her emotions and a single sound resonating in her head.

Meanwhile, Diego heard about the murder in Jackpine Cove and went to investigate. With his fake badge he was easily able to fool the small-town cop into believing that Diego was a city detective who was helping a family find a missing woman. He accompanied the cop to the hospital where the surviving attack victim told them that Leonard had paid them good money upfront to attack him. The nurse informed Diego that Leonard Peabody had left and confirmed Vanya was with him when Diego showed her Vanya's concert flyer with her picture. However, because there was no listing for a Peabody anywhere in the area, Diego was never able to find them. Therefore, the next day he drove back home, knowing Vanya's concert was that evening.

During this time, Leonard helped Vanya enhance her powers, all the while convincing her that her siblings hated her. Meanwhile, Diego told the others of his discovery and they all went to the concert with the intent to bring Vanya home. After the concert, Vanya and Leonard were alone in the green room when Luther, Diego and Allison confronted him, leaving Klaus out in the hallway as the "lookout" since he was high. As the others confronted Vanya and Leonard, it was then that Allison remembered what Sir Reginald had her do, and Vanya didn’t take it well. The building shook, and Allison tried rumoring Vanya, but Vanya flicked her bow and slashed Allison's throat.

"Jesus," Vanya said quietly but horrified. "I can’t…I can’t believe I would have done that."

Allison took Vanya's hand.

However, Hazel went on to say that Vanya felt guilty and immediately apologized, hysterically. Luther lost it and beat Leonard to death, popping his glass eye out in the process; and as a finishing touch he threw Leonard through the ceiling, hence why Five had never seen Leonard's body with the siblings in the apocalypse. Unfortunately, Vanya took _ that _ worse as she had never figured out that Leonard had manipulated her. As a result Vanya's powers went out of control as she caused the entire building to collapse; but just before everyone died, Luther grabbed the eyeball, hoping that maybe someday Five would find them and help stop what was happening. After the building came crashing down, Vanya released her remaining amount of energy straight to the moon. A large chunk of the moon plummeted to the earth, bringing on the apocalypse.

The siblings all sat around in shock for a moment after Hazel was done.

"Uh, well," Luther chuckled, "I guess I did one thing right. Because you _ did _ find us again, Five, and we all stopped it."

"That’s right," Hazel said. "All seven of you."

Klaus looked over at Vanya and smiled. "See? We needed you fighting with us as much as we needed each other." Vanya, meanwhile, was still processing the fact that she had hurt her sister.

"Yes, all seven of you," Hazel repeated, "which also includes your brother Ben."

"Which Ben wouldn’t have been able to appear if you hadn’t gotten clean," Diego proudly reminded Klaus.

"Uh, Hazel," Five interrupted, "You said that no one was paying enough attention to the timeline. I know we weren’t supposed to stop the apocalypse, so what was actually supposed to happen?"

"Funny you should ask," Hazel said. "I have that information, too. Klaus was never supposed to be able to see Dave, since Dave couldn’t find him. The Commission didn’t take into consideration that Ben might find Dave."

"What?!" Klaus exclaimed. "Why didn’t they want me to see him?"

"You were supposed to get high again," Hazel replied. "After Diego got you, you slipped off to your room to pop pills since you were detoxing. Diego didn’t try to stop you, and unfortunately, by then he’d had enough of trying to help you."

"Shit," Klaus muttered. But he knew that would have happened. He recalled that after Diego had stormed out of the attic pissed off at him, Klaus had thought to himself that he would just go get loaded later, if conjuring Dave hadn’t worked. 

Meanwhile, Diego felt horrible that he would have given up on Klaus so easily. However, Diego had also felt that at the time he was being pushed to his limits with Klaus; but when he saw Klaus' willingness to help Vanya, especially on his own while going through withdrawals, Diego was more than willing to forgive Klaus.

Diego looked at his brother, who was still processing this, and put his hand on Klaus' shoulder. "Hey. You didn’t get high this time, though. And I never gave up on you."

Klaus looked at him and smiled weakly as he nodded.

"So, what happened to me, then?" Vanya asked Hazel.

"Well, there was a delay getting you back to the Academy because you had to wait until Diego busted out of jail so he could come get you. You still accepted his help and forgave your sister, but unfortunately, you killed Pogo."

Vanya's heart sank. She then also realized that she had never made amends with Pogo for her anger in the first place.

Hazel then turned to Klaus. "By the time everyone found out about your past, you weren’t willing to accept help and continued getting high. Because of that, you never found out the truth about Mr. Hargreeves."

"And I was never able to bring Ben out at the theater," Klaus realized sadly.

"That’s right," Hazel said. "The gunmen were supposed to take you all out, and Vanya wouldn’t have been able to handle the grief. Just like before, the theater was destroyed and Vanya's energy hit the moon and caused the apocalypse."

"Wait," Diego interjected. "What exactly are you trying to tell us?"

Five's eyes widened as he turned to Hazel. "This was never about who _ caused _ the apocalypse…."

"But who _ prevented _ it." Hazel looked at Klaus and beamed. "You did, because you got clean."

Klaus sat in shock as all of the other siblings stared at him. "Holy…shit," he said weakly. He placed his head in his hands as his shoulders heaved from silent sobbing. Diego rubbed the back of Klaus' head. No one else knew what to say.

"Hey, kid," Hazel approached Klaus. Diego helped Klaus up and kept his arm around Klaus, whose legs were weak. Hazel smiled at him. "I know what Mr. Hargreeves said to you yesterday. I can read people pretty well. The only reason why he said _ any _ of those things was because he couldn’t admit that you didn’t save the world _ his _ way, but instead you saved it _ your _ way." Hazel looked at everyone else. "All of you saved it in your own ways."

"Um, Hazel?" Klaus said through his tears. "You know how you said you didn’t think you could make it up to me?" He smiled back at Hazel. "You’ve done more than enough to repay me."

Hazel held out his hand to Klaus. Klaus gave him a hug instead. Afterward, Diego shook Hazel's hand and said, "Thank you."

"Well, I need to go meet up with Agnes," Hazel said. "She’s with someone from the Commission who has a briefcase. He is going to leave after I return, so I’ll never have to deal with briefcases or the Commission ever again."

"Oh, that reminds me," Five walked behind the bar counter and pulled out the briefcase he had taken to escape. "You might as well give him this one, too."

"Damn it, I thought I was done carrying around these stupid things," Hazel groaned.

"Oh, you will be after tonight," Five said. "So, what are you and Agnes going to do?"

"Travel across the country like we planned," Hazel said. "After that, who knows."

"Well, I hope this isn’t the last time I’ll ever see you," Five told him.

"It won’t be," Hazel promised. "And we’ll send you postcards."

As Five saw Hazel out, Klaus sat in a daze.

"You okay?" Diego beamed, patting Klaus on the shoulder.

"Uh…yeah…." Klaus managed to squeak out.

Then Allison looked at Vanya. "Are _ you _ okay?"

"I can’t believe that I would have done that to you," Vanya trembled as she faced Allison.

"Vanya," Allison grabbed a hold of Vanya's hand again. "That was because Leonard had more time to manipulate you and contribute to your loss of control."

"I know," Vanya said, "but what happened to Pogo…that was when I first got back here."

"Wait," Luther interrupted, as Five returned to the room. "Hazel didn’t say when the incident with Pogo took place. How would you know that?"

Vanya looked over at Klaus, who broke his trance long enough to make brief eye contact. "Because," Vanya sighed, "when I first got back here, I got angry with Pogo when I found out he knew anything. I lost control, but instead of Pogo, I accidentally hurt Klaus."

Luther looked at Klaus. "Shit. Glad you’re okay." He paused, remembering the family meeting about Klaus' powers. "So, that was what you meant when you made the comment about staying dead."

Klaus nodded. "Yeah, I actually saw Reggie in the afterlife; that was how I found out about what he’d done."

Luther then glanced around the room. "I guess I was the only one who didn’t know about this."

"Luther-" Allison started.

"No, it’s okay," Luther cut back in. "I mean, I know I haven’t been someone easy to confide in." He looked back at Vanya. "I can understand if you were afraid that I would try to lock you back up."

"Honestly, I was afraid of that," Vanya admitted. "Although I never told anyone. I’m sorry that none of us told you the whole story." She then stood up. "And now I’m going to take care of something else I should have done a week ago. I’ll be back soon."

Luther watched Vanya head toward the back of the mansion. "Me too, actually," he said as he followed her.

Five approached Diego, who was still eyeing Klaus. "Hey, Diego?"

"Yeah, man?"

"Uh, Hargreeves' journal," Five requested. "Do you have it?" He looked at Klaus, who was back to staring ahead, and then at Diego again. "I’m not going to read anything about Klaus; I just want to see what he wrote the day I disappeared."

Diego nodded. "It’s in my desk drawer in my room."

"Thanks." Five zapped away.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A minute later Five was sitting at Diego's desk as he flipped through the pages until he found the entry in question.

_ #00.05 Incident 11/10/02 _

_ At dinnertime this evening number five initially broke my rule of silence during mealtimes by insisting that I allow him to travel through time. Despite my advising him that he was not ready, he left the Academy and has not been seen since. I fear that he may have jumped too far into the future and cannot return. My only hope that wherever number five is, he will eventually acquire the knowledge to return. I need all of the Umbrella Academy together if they are going to save the world. _

Five shook his head. _ Hard to tell what he thought of me, _ Five concluded. He flipped through the pages to the last record, which wasn’t so much an entry, but a monologue the old man had repeated to them often.

_ Nietzsche once said, "Man is as a rope stretched between the animal and the superhuman. A rope over an abyss. It is a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting." As much as you must strive for individual greatness, and strive you must, for it won't come to you of its own accord, you must also remember that there is no individual stronger than the collective. The ties that bind you together make you stronger than you are alone. They will make you impervious to the pain and hardship the world will thrust upon you. And believe me when I tell you, life will be hard. It will be painful. We can accomplish anything when we accept responsibility together. This is what creates trust. Together, you will stand against the reign of evil. _

Five reread that paragraph. Sir Reginald Hargreeves' words here seemed so contradictory to how he raised everyone. But he was right: together all seven Umbrella Academy siblings did stand together; and each did their part in defeating the very reign of evil.


	12. Chapter 12

With Luther standing behind her, Vanya cautiously rapped on Pogo's bedroom door. After about fifteen seconds, Pogo opened it. "Miss Vanya. Master Luther," Pogo said cautiously.

"Pogo," Vanya said nervously, "I want to apologize to you for how angry I was when I found out that you knew about my powers."

"And I’m sorry, too, for my own anger," Luther added.

"Dear children," Pogo smiled. "I forgive each of you. Like I said, I understand how hurt you both were by your father’s deception-"

"Uh, Pogo," Luther cut in, "After last night, none of us consider him our father."

"Ah, yes, last night," Pogo said. "I heard a bit of commotion between Master Diego and Master Klaus and had considered invervening, but it soon seemed like everything was under control. Because I was uncertain whether I was forgiven by either of you, as well as whether I need to confer with any of the other children, I had felt it was best to keep my distance for the time being."

"Pogo," Luther inquired, "Are you aware that Klaus brought Hargreeves out to talk to us all last night, and that we just had a visitor a few minutes ago?"

"No, I was not aware," Pogo told him. 

Luther briefly explained what they had learned about Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

"As I told you," Pogo responded, "I was not aware of any of this regarding Master Hargreeves. Perhaps he knew that either Grace or I might buckle down and tell someone the truth. This does not surprise me."

"That’s not all we just found out," Vanya interjected, as she filled Pogo in on what Sir Reginald had said about Klaus, and Klaus' reaction. "That’s what the commotion was about. I think that Klaus would have gone out and killed himself if Diego hadn’t stopped him."

"Oh, dear," Pogo sighed. "I had hoped that Master Klaus would never find that out."

"That the man who raised us was homophobic," Vanya said angrily. "Or I guess panphobic, in Klaus' case." It was heartbreaking for Vanya to recall her caring, funny and loving brother break down in tears shouting, _ All I ever wanted was for him to love me! All he ever did was hate me! _ "And that he would have let Klaus kill himself because he considered Klaus useless." Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Like I said, there were many things with which I silently disagreed regarding Master Hargreeves, his behavior concerning both you, Miss Vanya, and Master Klaus, being among those things," Pogo said sadly. "Master Hargreeves simply did not have the patience to raise children as they should properly be raised-"

"That’s an understatement," Luther muttered.

"Had Master Hargreeves possessed greater patience, you indeed might have learned to control your powers at an early age," Pogo admitted to Vanya. "And unfortunately, Miss Vanya, you are correct that he was a traditionalist, and this news that he was actually born well over a hundred years ago is not surprising, either. I should probably talk with Master Klaus if he will let me. I hope that he will be all right."

"Well, I think he’s a lot better now," Luther beamed. "Our houseguest? He was from the Temps Commission and one of the masked intruders here." Luther explained Hazel's retirement and what he had also said about Klaus.

"I will still talk to him, just the same." Pogo followed Luther and Vanya out of his bedroom to the living room.

Klaus was sitting between Allison and Diego, still looking in shock. Five teleported back as Pogo, Luther and Vanya approached Klaus. "Master Klaus," Pogo stood before him. Allison scooted over, allowing Vanya to sit next to Klaus, figuring that he needed to be by the sister he had helped the most and the brother who had helped him the most.

Klaus looked up at Pogo. "Yes?"

Pogo sighed. "Your brother and sister informed me of what Master Hargreeves said about you. I am terribly, terribly sorry. I hope you know that I never thought ill of you. And I, too, am proud of you for quitting your substance abuse."

Klaus smiled at Pogo. "I know you never judged me."

"What’s there to judge?" Five piped up. "I look like a thirteen-year-old boy, Luther thinks he’s fooling everyone with that overcoat, and we have a talking chimpanzee and a robot as our mentors! You’re certainly not the only pansexual person on earth, and there are plenty of men who prefer women’s clothing. In fact, besides Vanya, you’re probably the most 'normal' person here!"

"You actually called Klaus _ normal? _" Allison laughed.

"I love you, too, sis," Klaus also chuckled.

"I’m just proud of all of you," Pogo said. "All of you averted disaster by being a team."

Klaus nodded. "That’s right, _ all _ of us. I mean, what Hazel said was really cool, but I don’t deserve any extra credit. Ben was the one who took out the gunmen. If he were still alive, my sobriety wouldn’t have made any difference."

"Actually, that’s not entirely true," Five said. "The Commission would have known how to deal with Ben if he were alive. And, of course, as a ghost, the gunmen couldn’t kill him. Plus, with this newer power, you could have conjured _ all _ of the victims of the Temps Commission - well, hopefully none of _ my _ victims - and they also would have been able to kill the gunmen."

"But you are correct that we all worked _ together, _ " Allison pointed out. "In the original timeline, it was only three of us; the same three people who couldn’t defeat Hazel and Cha-Cha when they shot up the house. And while we were trying to help Vanya, she thought we were being invasive and controlling. We were unintentionally working _ against _ Vanya, and of course we didn’t know about the apocalypse since Five was still out there. Even as heartless as he was, Sir Reginald's stupid plan actually worked."

Pogo looked around the room. "I understand if it might take some time for some, if not all, of you to re-establish trust in me, but I hope that we can eventually work through this."

Klaus smiled and nodded again. "I trust you."

Vanya teared up. "I want to be able to." Klaus put his arm around her shoulders. "And I will. It’s just gonna take time. You have to remember that I was just in a relationship that was all lies."

"I understand, Miss Vanya."

She then stood up and hugged Pogo. "But we will work through this."

"Hey, so," Luther said to Pogo as the chimp and Vanya broke away, "We’re actually going to watch a movie. You’re welcome to stay with us."

And Pogo did. Klaus made it a quarter of the way through before falling asleep. Snuggled up against Klaus, Vanya drifted off not long after. Allison took a blanket and covered them both.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Allison left for the airport Sunday morning. That afternoon, Diego dropped Vanya, Klaus and Five off at Vanya's apartment where they helped her pack more things, while Diego had training and a fight. After successfully winning, Diego drove his siblings back to the mansion. Five immediately teleported away upon entering, while Diego, Klaus and Vanya remained standing in the foyer.

"I’m glad that you’re still able to fight at that gym, despite Al firing you," Vanya said.

"Well, I _ am _ the best fighter there," Diego said. "And one of the other guys there is trying to talk me into teaching martial arts. I don’t have the patience to deal with a bunch of people."

"How about you practice with me?" Vanya suggested. "I should learn to defend myself so that my powers don’t go out of control if I’m ever faced with another confrontation."

"Sure," Diego said. "I have floor mats in my room. We could go up to the attic." Then he turned to Klaus. "How about you, ex-stoner boy?"

Klaus looked blankly into the air. "Uh, lemme take a raincheck on that." He quickly ran up the stairs.

Vanya looked at Diego. "What was that about?"

Diego sighed. "I’m guessing Dave showed up again. I’m kind of worried about Klaus, actually."

Vanya nodded. "Because he’s holding on to someone who’s dead."

"Yeah," Diego said. "I’m gonna talk to him about it soon, but he’s been through too much for me to do it now."

"You’re right."

"Come on," Diego said. "Let's get those floor mats. We can check on him when we’re done in the attic."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Oh, Dave, you sneaky bastard," Klaus sat on one of his pillows across from the ghost of his first true love. "Getting me out of martial arts training to talk with you. How long are you planning on sticking around tonight?"

Dave smiled, but sadness overtook his eyes. "Not too long. I’ve actually come to say goodbye."

It took a moment for Dave's words to register to Klaus, and then Klaus' heart sank. "What? Why?"

"Klaus," Dave sighed. "I’m dead. I knew from when you first conjured me that you had just gotten clean, and both Ben and I were concerned that you might relapse. That was why I showed up in the car near the mausoleum that morning."

"Because I talked of going back to drugs," Klaus realized, blinking back tears.

"Yes," Dave said. "Even though you rarely saw me, I’ve been watching over you the whole time. And that morning was the only time you said that, which was only because you were afraid that your powers would harm your family."

Klaus nodded while still trying to hold back tears. "Yeah, it was."

"I know that you first got clean to find me," Dave continued. "But since then, you’ve learned so many other reasons why your sobriety is important. I believe your sister when she said she might not have gotten through this without your help, and you have _ all _ of your family to support you. Plus, you’ll meet other recovering addicts in this diversion program that you’re about to start."

"Yeah, well, I’m not going to chant the Serenity Prayer to a God that hates me," Klaus attempted a chuckle, only for a tear to fall. Shit. He didn’t want to cry around Dave, who was saying goodbye to him.

"Klaus," Dave smiled warmly. "You don’t need me, or anyone else to keep you sober. You’re doing a terrific job of it yourself. And someday someone else will come into your life, someone who will make you as happy as I did."

Klaus bit his lip as more tears spilled. "And you did. You still do."

"I will always watch over you," Dave said softly. "But we both know that it’s time to move on."

Klaus nodded. Dave was right. In the very back of his mind, Klaus had known this all along; he just hadn’t admitted it with everything else that had gone on. "Can I kiss you one last time?"

With that, Klaus' hands glowed and Dave appeared in blue form. Klaus stood up and touched Dave's sweet lips with his. Afterward, Dave was back in ghost form.

"I love you, Klaus. I will always love you."

"I love you too, Dave," Klaus' voice quivered. "Thank you for showing me how to truly love someone."

"You did the same for me," Dave beamed. He then stayed silent for a few more seconds, as Klaus got one last look at the love of his life. "And someday we will meet in eternity. God will have to take you sometime, but not for a very long time."

Klaus smiled through his tears.

Dave lifted his hand. "This is it. Goodbye, Klaus."

Klaus lifted up his left hand which had the GOOD BYE tattoo. "Goodbye, my love."

With that, Dave slowly vanished. Klaus sat down on the pillow as the tears spilled over.

After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. "Klaus?" He heard Vanya's voice through the door.

"Come in," Klaus didn’t hide the shakiness in his voice.

Vanya entered, followed by Diego. They both sat on either side of Klaus and placed their hands on his shoulders.

"Dave said goodbye," Klaus sobbed. "I know it’s for the best, but right now it hurts."

"I understand," Vanya whispered.

"So do I," Diego said quietly. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I will, but," Klaus looked at each of them. "Can you guys stay with me tonight?"

The three siblings lined up all of Klaus' large throw pillows along the floor to form a cushion large enough to fit them all. Diego had decided just for tonight to suspend his rule of only lying with someone he considered a romantic partner. Vanya snuggled up with Klaus and rested her head on his chest while Diego turned on Klaus' TV to, of course, _ Golden Girls. _ Diego then settled next to them both.

However, within a few minutes Klaus was asleep again. Diego figured that the combination of many emotional events, as well as Klaus likely having been sleep-deprived while in Vietnam and from drug use prior to that, Klaus would probably sleep like a baby every night for a while. Hopefully he wouldn’t have nightmares.

Vanya looked up at Klaus, and then to Diego. "You can change the channel if you want."

Diego shrugged. "Do you like this show?"

"Yeah, I kinda do," she admitted quietly.

"Then we can watch it."

However, not long afterward, Vanya drifted off as well. Diego waited until the episode was over before turning off the TV and the lights, with the exception of Klaus' fairy lights. Diego looked at Klaus and Vanya as they held one another in sleep, and he realized how grateful he was that the two of them probably saved each other’s lives.

And they all saved the world.

Diego lay back down, but then he reached over and gave Vanya a kiss on the top of her head, and she stirred slightly. He did a single sweep of his hand through Klaus' mop of curls, and Klaus sighed and for a split second the corners of his mouth turned slightly upward.

"I love you guys," Diego whispered.

Vanya was going to be okay. Klaus was going to be okay. And Diego would always look out for them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done! The last chapter is an epilogue. I am so, so grateful to all of you for the sweet comments! 💖


	13. Epilogue

Three months had passed since the family’s reunion. Luther stayed holed up in his room often, although he also did his part in treating everyone more civilly, including Diego (who in turn did his best to reciprocate; baby steps). Five spent most of his days at the Argyle Library reading about time-travel with books that previously had not survived the apocalypse; he also worked to reacquaint himself with Vanya, as well as with Ben whenever Klaus was able to bring him out.

Allison had made arrangements to fly back once again on June 27 to celebrate two milestones: Klaus was ninety days sober, and Allison just had her first supervised visit with Claire last Sunday. Fortunately, Allison's therapist had worked with Allison and understood Allison's reasons for skipping her session not only due to her father’s death, but also because her missing brother had returned after nearly seventeen years; and within three days, two of her brothers encountered tragic loss and her sister got out of an abusive relationship. However, Allison had decided it was best not to admit to her therapist that she once used her power on her brother to help him. The therapist might not understand, she figured, and she was otherwise sticking to her rule of not rumoring others for personal gain.

Vanya met with her former boss at the music school, also explaining that she was in an abusive relationship and needed to be with her family. Her supervisor said that due to Vanya's previous satisfactory job performance, he was willing to work with her, but they had since already hired a replacement. However, in a year, one of the other teachers would retire, and the school had a current need for an office secretary; he said that this job would be a cut in pay, of course, but if she proved herself just as well, she would be rehired to take that teacher's place. Vanya was fine with that. She had decided to stay at the Academy and save money, as she, Klaus and Diego hoped to eventually get a place together.

If anyone had told Diego before the funeral that he might consider living with Vanya, he would have assumed they had taken Klaus' drugs to be thinking so delusionally. But as Vanya and Klaus spent more time together, Diego got to know her better as well. It turned out that in addition to classical music, Vanya actually liked some of the same bands Diego did. Klaus gave Diego his guitar, and Diego actually took lessons from both Klaus and Vanya; although she was obviously a violinist and not a guitarist, she could still teach Diego to read music while Klaus taught chord progressions.

It was a few days after Hazel's revelations that it had occurred to Klaus that if he was supposed to get high from not actually seeing Dave, then he still had drugs stored somewhere in his room. Therefore, Diego and Vanya willingly helped him search everything, which included Vanya having to watch Klaus go through his box of kinky stuff (don’t ask, other than that Vanya subsequently spent half an hour playing her violin as a source of meditation and cleansing of her mind accordingly). In the end, only a single baggie in the zippered pocket of Klaus' stuffed unicorn was found. 

Unfortunately, about a week or so after Sir Reginald's and Hazel's back-to-back reveals, Klaus began having nightmares at least a couple of times per week. Sometimes his nightmares depicted him in the front lines, while other nights he was being beaten or worse. Either Diego or Vanya, sometimes both, would stay with Klaus during those nights. After the second nightmare regarding the latter subject Klaus took the number of Vanya's therapist, who was more than happy to work with him, revealing to both him and Vanya (who had previously notified her therapist of the positive change in family dynamic and the possibility of her brother [whom Vanya now considered a best friend to her as well as Five] becoming a client) that she, too was a rape survivor.

On the days of his counseling appointments, Klaus was usually pretty distant to everyone, even Diego and Ben, but not to Vanya. The softest place in his heart was held for her. Vanya wished she could talk to their therapist herself about Leonard, but she would have to lie about what happened to him. Instead, she sought Klaus out, usually on the days of his own sessions; on those days Klaus was all the more willing to listen than talk, and he gave her the same amount of empathy as he would any other time. And helping Vanya always ultimately helped him as well. 

In May Klaus began the diversion program, which consisted of four hours of class per week for six months. In attendance there was the same guy from rehab who, on the night Klaus was released (prior to winding up in an ambulance an hour later and hearing the news about Reggie), he had said, "You, not so much," after telling another patient that he believed in him. Joke was on Klaus; the guy actually remained sober but was in the process of a case while in rehab. However, the guy was nice about it after seeing how much different Klaus was since then.

Of course, part of the program requirement was to attend twelve-step meetings, so Klaus went to several per week. He rarely talked, since he didn’t like opening up to strangers; plus, how could he share that he got sober to conjure his dead boyfriend and stayed sober to help his family avert the apocalypse? But he heard other stories, many similar to some of the torture he had endured throughout his adult life. The meetings and his counseling sessions helped lessen Klaus' nightmares, and a couple of times he even opened up to Diego about some things, including confirming Diego's suspicion that Klaus didn’t remember his "first time" because he was high. Diego was glad he didn’t know who these scumbags who harmed Klaus were, because Diego would otherwise likely be in prison for murder.

Diego decided that the best way to honor Eudora's memory was to quit his vigilanté work, for the most part; he still helped his associates when it was needed. Otherwise, he instead spent his days trying to find legitimate employment; he earned money through boxing, but that wouldn’t be enough if he eventually wanted to get back out on his own. But he, Vanya and Klaus had a year to think about it, and it would probably be a little while before Klaus could find gainful employment himself.

On the 27th, Klaus picked up his ninety-day sobriety coin at an afternoon meeting. That evening, Allison chose the place for dinner. Afterward, they all decided to go bowling. Neither Five, Vanya nor Luther had ever bowled; Allison teamed up with Vanya and Luther so she could teach them, and Klaus and Five were together for the same purpose, and because they both were left-handed. Diego sat with the two lefties and watched instead of playing, since he obviously would have had too unfair of an advantage otherwise. They played one game, and then Allison and Vanya left to get sodas for everyone and Luther stepped away for a minute, too. That brief intermission was when Diego had one of his most embarrassing moments ever.

"Excuse me!" A heavyset red-headed woman approached Diego, Klaus and Five, with her arm around a geeky-looking kid. Klaus could have sworn he had seen her before. "My son Kenny and I are bowling here by ourselves, and wouldn’t your son be happier playing with kids his own age?" She then looked at Five. "Assuming it’s okay with your two dads."

Diego and Klaus exchanged stunned expressions while Five looked at the woman through narrowed eyes. "I would rather chew off my own foot!"

Taken aback, the mother said, "Let’s go, Kenny," and the two rushed off as Luther returned. "Who was _ that? _"

"Don’t ask," Five grumbled.

"_ If _ I was going to date a man, you’d be the last man I would date," Diego said snarkily to Klaus.

Klaus fluttered his eyes. "You’d be lucky to get me."

Of course, Diego wasn’t into men; and unlike Luther and Allison, he considered _ all _ of his adopted siblings as brothers and sisters. And as Diego admitted to Klaus, he not only saw Klaus a brother but his best friend. And every day he became more and more proud of Klaus as Klaus continued to improve his life.

"No, that woman," Luther interrupted. "I saw her at that rave I went to."

That was when Klaus remembered her. "You know what? She was sitting across the bus from me when I opened the briefcase and traveled to 1968."

"Jesus, you don’t think we have another stalker on our hands, do you?" Luther wondered as Allison and Vanya returned with the sodas.

"What are you talking about?" Allison wondered.

Luther shook his head. "Nothing." He didn’t want to bring up the rave around Allison, even though she seemed to have gotten over it, and over him. Luther recently overheard Vanya tell Klaus that Allison and Patrick were talking again since Allison had since shown remorse for her actions. Luther couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed. Despite her actions as a kid, Allison was probably the closest chance of a relationship that he would ever have (as it turned out, the rave bunny had thought he was a furry); otherwise, he figured that no woman would be attracted to his grotesque upper body.

"You said stalker," Vanya reminded him. "Still kind of a sore subject for me." Allison patted her on the shoulder.

Diego and Allison both knew that it would be quite a while before either Klaus or Vanya were ready to date again. Diego promised Allison that he would keep a close eye on the guy when it would happen for Vanya; and depending on the gender of whoever Klaus hooked up with, Diego or Allison would do the same.

"Guys!" Klaus smiled. "We’re here to have fun! Are we gonna bowl another game?"

Vanya forced a grin. "Yes, of course we are." And they bowled one more game. Vanya seemed to quickly forget that remark. At least Klaus, Allison and Diego all hoped so.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Later that night, Diego found Klaus in the attic sitting on the sill of the open window staring out at the stars. "You okay?" Diego asked him.

Klaus nodded. "Yeah. I still think about him at times. I still miss him."

Diego nodded back. "I know. I still think about Eudora."

"You know, she only said a few words to me, but she was very nice."

"She was," Diego agreed. "And I miss her, too."

"Does it ever get any easier?" Klaus looked at him with pleading eyes.

Diego placed his hand on Klaus' shoulder. "I guess we’re both finding this out." While Diego definitely would rather have had Eudora here, as well as Dave for Klaus' sake, he was grateful that he and Klaus were able to help each other through it. He then patted Klaus on the shoulder as he noticed Klaus' eyelids start to sag. "Come on, buddy. Before you fall asleep here and roll out of the window."

The two made it to the hallway when they heard sobbing from Vanya's room. Klaus knocked on her door and opened it. He and Diego sat with her on her bed.

"What’s wrong, honey?" Klaus gently stroked her hair. "Did the comment Luther made earlier trigger you?"

"I know he didn’t mean it," Vanya quivered. "It’s just still hard sometimes."

"I know, baby," Klaus said soothingly. "Diego and I were just having this conversation."

"Sorry," Vanya wiped her eyes. "I’m really trying not to dwell on it. I know I need to move on."

"And you will be able to," Diego assured her. "It’s only been three months. For all of us."

"And you should be able to talk about it any time you want to," Klaus said softly. "I’m here for you. So are Allison and Diego."

"I know," Vanya smiled. "I’ll be okay."

"That’s good," Klaus said. "But I’m not leaving you alone tonight." He jumped over Vanya and grabbed her other pillow. As soon as Klaus adjusted himself he fell fast asleep.

"Well, at least I don’t have to worry about him keeping me awake," Vanya laughed to Diego.

"Well, if he has any nightmares, come get me, all right?"

"Okay. Good night, Diego."

Klaus didn’t have any nightmares. And with each passing day, Klaus was getting a little better. So was Vanya.

So was everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, that’s a wrap! I may actually make this a series and create a sequel with the siblings facing a new but equally threatening danger. For the time being, meanwhile, I am working on something smaller and pre-canon from when they all were younger.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the love, on what was my first fanfic ever.
> 
> Keep your bodies your temples, folks! 😻💖


End file.
